A Most Coveted Burden
by La Vik
Summary: Supreme Leader Snoke grooms Kylo Ren for more sinister purposes, and the Resistance is now aided by Ben Solo's rival as a young Jedi apprentice: Yasha, a woman disillusioned with the Jedi Way. Meanwhile, Luke Skywalker's return heralds the revelation of years of secrets that have shaped the fate of the entire galaxy. [POST-TFA, Kylo/OC, some Finn/Rey]
1. Returning

"General?"

General Leia Organa looked back over her shoulder at one of her lieutenants charged with monitoring communications from the Millennium Falcon. She attempted to wipe the weary expression from her face, though everyone in every corner of the base knew that it had been days since she had slept a proper night's sleep. Six days. Six days since the legendary Han Solo had died at the hands of his own son. Their son. No begrudged their devoted General a period of mourning, but there were some instances where the solitude which she often imposed upon herself simply needed to be interrupted. Such was the fate, she conceded, of the leader of the resistance. Her time for her own mourning would not take precedent over the needs of the people.

"They're bringing Luke Skywalker back to the base and are requesting cover for transport once they enter our system."

"Understandable," she nodded wearily. "I'm sure there'd be more than one headhunter that would like to see their safe passage to D'Qar intercepted -"

"Master Skywalker has someone else from the island he's bringing with them," the Lieutenant interrupted carefully. "A girl. He says that he can't leave her on the island, that it would not be right to abandon her there."

"Did she have a name?"

"The called her Yasha," the Lieutenant supplied, and General Organa's eyes drifted shut - she drew in a long, slow breath through her nostrils. It was a name she wasn't sure she wanted to hear again. That girl, after all - though through no fault of her own - had played such a large part in Ben's desertion to the Dark Side. But once, Yasha Faygill had been dear to her too. And she was alive.

"General?"

"Yes, I'm sorry," she said, shaking her head gently to refocus her thoughts - to plan their next move before succumbing to such emotions. "Send Poe Dameron and his squadron to meet them when they enter the system."

"Yes, General Organa."

Finally alone again, Leia gently covered her face with her hands, willing away the false sense of hope that arose when she learned that Yasha Faygill was alive - alive and safely hidden with Luke Skywalker, no less. It meant that Ben had spared her - and if he had spared her, it meant that even when he had slaughtered all of the other young Jedi in training, he'd still had a heart then. Leia no longer wanted to hope that her son had a heart - not right now, anyway. Not after what he had done to his father.

Leia Organa had never truly believed that her family was separated forever - not until now. And hope was painful when it was crushed. She didn't want to risk having more hope to destroy, but Yasha's return would bring about precisely that.

* * *

Rey struggled with the fact that the two new passengers they had picked up on this strange planet simply didn't speak much at all. Granted, it may have been new to them. They'd been on a mostly uninhabited island for a good amount of time now and had no one but one another to speak with.

Or perhaps, Rey mused inwardly, they didn't speak at all. Maybe that was what Jedi did, simply sat around all day reading one another's minds. It wasn't as if she truly knew anything about any of this. About a week ago, it had all been the stuff of myth and legend that she had better things to do than believe true.

Shaking her head to regain her focus, she began to set coordinates back to D'Qar, her hands swift and adept in managing the controls of the Millennium Falcon. She flinched slightly from the noise in the co-pilot seat, coming from her newly gained co-pilot.

"I'm not excited, Chewie."

Another set of roars and groan-like laughter.

"What do you mean, not even about Finn?" Rey asked in a low voice, her brow furrowing and her face flushing as she returned her focus to the controls. "You're being ridiculous, Chewie."

The Wookie gave a blaring sound of laughter at the younger woman's response, to which she responded with a dull smack on his shoulder.

"Shut up."

* * *

The arrival back on D'Qar was quiet - perhaps Rey had been naive to think it would have been more joyful an event that she was bringing back the last Jedi master to his sister. There was, after all, an air of too little too late by now. As they disembarked from the Millennium Falcon, no one was there to greet them. By now, everyone had returned to their posts and their duties; life in the Resistance had, it appeared, resumed normalcy. They had been met, as ordered, by Poe Dameron's entire crew who had seen to their safe passage; now, they walked over the practically empty grounds.

Still, when the entire party headed by Rey entered the inner threshold of the Resistance headquarters to meet with General Organa, she at least rose to greet them, approaching her brother first and embracing him with tears in her eyes.

Luke, on his part, seemed strangely disconnected despite his sister's obvious affection towards him. Rey looked at the weathered old man in Jedi robes and gently narrowed her eyes in confusion. She knew that Jedi were trained in the art of detachment, of complete balance and peace - but were they not still human? If they were not, she began to wonder if a Jedi was indeed still something that a person might actually aspire to be if they were deprived of such basic human experiences.

And Yasha, the woman who lurked a few steps behind Master Skywalker at all times, who still regarded him with reverence despite no longer being his formal pupil - General Leia Organa's gaze drifted to the woman. Rey was surprised to see recognition on both of their faces as they shared a long glance.

"You must be tired," Leia said, drawing her head higher and looking to face her brother, who now looked in every way to be a wise and battle-weary Jedi Knight - the Luke of legends and not of Leia Organa's memories. "I'm sure we have much to talk about, but I don't think it's the time - we have spare quarters. They're not much, but they're enough."

"Thank you," Luke spoke finally - the sound of his voice seemed almost to startle Leia, as it had been years since she had heard it at all. Finally, the brother and sister managed a small, weak smile for one another before he bowed reverently and started towards the guest quarters. The entire party began filing out, though as always, the younger woman who had accompanied Luke stood behind, allowing herself to go last. She turned to leave when she heard a voice speak her name - the voice of the only other person in the room, the General herself.

"Yasha."

The younger woman froze in her tracks, halted from retreating to the humble guest quarters of the base. Slowly, Yasha turned to face the fearless leader of the Resistance. "General," she said with a respectful incline of her head. "I would like to thank you again for your -"

"We can skip the niceties, we know each other. I would not have had you left out there," Leia interrupted. "You know about Ben by now, then. You know what he's done."

The pallor that overtook Yasha's face gave Leia her answer, in case of the event that the younger woman could not supply one. However, with a quaver in her voice, she managed somehow to speak. "None of this was what I wanted. All I wanted was to be a good Jedi. I was a child, I couldn't have taken responsibility for -"

"I know," Leia interrupted again, her eyes briefly drifting shut. "I know that you've done nothing that you need to atone for. That's not why I wanted to speak with you."

Now, it was Yasha's turn to close her eyes, her shoulders sagging in relief. When she opened them again, there was a warmth to them as though something in her had thawed out - Leia, for the first time in years, saw the girl she had known years ago, who had brought out the best in her son when he had still been called Ben Solo. "You were one of the best," Leia said plainly. "You trained with my brother too, and now we need you. The Resistance needs you."

"Master Skywalker didn't finish," Yasha protested weakly. "On me or on Ben. I don't think I can help you -"

"You and Ben were so much alike," Leia said, her voice now weary and strangely pleading. "You knew him, Yasha."

To this, Yasha Faygill had no retort. She looked down at her shoes and reverted to what she did best - diversion.

"The girl. Rey," she began slowly, still unable to look up at the older woman before her. "She doesn't remember who it was that brought her to Jakku, does she?"

"She's waiting for someone," Leia said, explaining as best she could. "She..."

But upon seeing the strange expression on Yasha's face - the mix of both apprehension and warmth - something stirred in Leia. And she knew. She had known when she had looked into Rey's eyes the first time that the girl was no stranger, but there was more to her. Yasha gave a short, knowing nod.

"There were whispers for many months," Yasha began vaguely. "Whispers that someone among us in the Jedi Temple would soon betray us. Master Skywalker said nothing to you, but he could feel it coming from Ben. He could already see that... that he'd been entranced by Snoke's schemes. So I accompanied him to Jakku, to leave his child for safekeeping..."

So many truths coming to the surface at once left Leia feeling as though she had to gasp for air. Rey was Luke's child. And they had known about Ben months before his betrayal. Everything had been slowly coming together even then, culminating in all that had transpired in the recent weeks. Yasha hung her head in shame, and Leia could feel the heaviness of the burden the young woman bore when the conversation drifted to the topic of a certain _Ben Solo_.

"I wonder it too," she admitted so quietly that Leia thought perhaps she had imagined the young woman's voice. "I wonder if perhaps I could have stopped him, if I had stopped trying to be a good Jedi and been... and been a good person. I wonder if perhaps it was my mistake..."

Yasha's hand reached absently to the back of her own neck and began to fiddle with a small braided strand that began near the nape of her neck, ornamented with a pair of copper beads and wrapped at the end with piece of crimson string. Leia remembered the first day that she had seen her son wearing a similar ornament, seen the distant, elated look on his face of which, for a young man like him, a young woman would always be the cause.

"You were ready. You were a good student," Leia said gently. "You didn't need to be so afraid of failing."

At this, General Leia Organa gave a short nod and took her leave of the girl, leaving Yasha to her own thoughts.

The General was, in Yasha Faygill's mind, very wrong. She had every reason to fear failing. She had already been failing, and failing terribly, even if no one had known. A Jedi was meant not to harbor such troublesome emotions, such burdensome attachments - and surely, being in love was the most burdensome of all.

* * *

 _A/N's_

 _New story, just playing with a new idea after having seen TFA. This first chapter is still me gaining my bearings in the fandom, but I have some ideas that I'm playing around with. Chapter 2 to be posted within the next few days. Until next time, cheers! (And for those following my other stories, worry not! I just needed to take a time out due to some writer's block!)_


	2. Reasoning

A full stomach and a set of clean clothes, General Organa realized, did wonders in transforming the tired girl from the night prior into the fresh-faced young woman she could still picture in her mind - the young woman who she had many times in another life seen holding hands with her son, the last person with whom Leia Organa had seen Ben smile. Now, however, was not the time to reminisce about these things. Now was the time to plan - and now that they had the last remaining Jedi Master and his last surviving pupil in their midst, Leia felt some hope that perhaps there was hope for a new plan. A better plan.

"The First Order isn't done with us yet," she spoke up finally, standing and briefly raising her hands to gain the attention of everyone gathered at the table to discuss their next course of action. "And now, we're at a disadvantage. We no longer have intelligence on the inside."

Now, the gazes directed towards a darker skinned man wearing looser garments, with gauze bandage peering over the top. Situated a few seats at the table away from Rey upon whom he had focused his stare, he looked a bit surprised at the sudden attention.

"Look, I'm sorry," he began plainly. "I don't know anything else about what their plans might be. Not anymore. Whatever comes after the plans for the Starkiller Base is way over my paygrade."

"I might know a way."

Quickly, the heads turned to the new voice - Yasha had spoken up. Looking slightly surprised at herself as well, she cleared her throat and realized that there was no taking back her thoughts now. "Maybe, at least. My father was an inventor and... and many of designs were never actually made, but there was one. An unmanned spy droid no larger than my hand," she said. The lilt of her voice and the slight leap of her eyebrows well her tell, as only a handful of people knew. She was excited about the possibility of such an idea. "He called it the Crawler. If anything could get in and out of an enemy base, that might be our chance."

"So you've seen the plans?" Rey spoke up, leaning gently over the edge of the table towards their new companion. "You've seen some kind of blueprint for this... for this Crawler?"

"A long time ago. Years ago," Yasha began. "But yes, I have. I don't know if -"

"If you've seen it and it's in your memories somewhere, I can find it," Rey suggested with more confidence in her voice than she actually possessed in her abilities. There was, after all, the chance that the first time had been a fluke. "If... if you'll allow it."

Leia looked momentarily apprehensive, and Yasha tensed visibly - both for similar reasons. Yasha Faygill's memory held many useful things, to be sure... but it also held many painful things, and many hidden things. The fact remained, however, that they had a mission to fulfill and a limited pool of resources with which to accomplish it. Fear of old secrets was not reason enough, both Leia and Yasha seemed to conclude at the same time without saying a word, to bypass what was possibly their best alternative.

"See if you can retrieve the plans from Yasha's memory - it's worth a try," Leia spoke up, not allowing Yasha the opportunity to say anything to the contrary. "We don't exactly have our picking of options. Do what you can, I leave it up to you."

Yasha and Rey nodded to one another and departed, leaving the meeting room and walking wordlessly alongside one another to one of the vacant sleeping quarters down the corridor. Yasha sat on the cot, while Rey grabbed a trunk from the other corner of the room and dragged it across the floor so she was situated right in front of the other woman.

"Alright," Rey said, hesitantly taking a breath and raising her hands so that they were on either side of Yasha's head. "Just hold still..."

But for a few tense seconds, Rey was able to find nothing. She gritted her teeth and shut her eyes. When her life had depended on her ability to do these things, to practice the skills that belonged to the Jedi, she had been able to - she'd been able to do these things as though she had somehow seen them in her life, somehow remembered them. But where were those skills now? She grimaced and lowered her hands, slumping slightly in disappointment.

"I'm sorry," she said in exasperation. "I... I don't know why it's not working."

"It's not working because you're too set on making it work. You're too worried," Yasha said knowingly. Rey lifted her head, and now saw the strange stillness that she had seen in Luke Skywalker's eyes when he had first greeted his sister - the calm of one who had trained in the ways of the Jedi. It was a quiet assertion of strength, of knowing. She had seen it in Kylo Ren's eyes as well, though not nearly as artfully maintained. "Raise your hands again," Yasha said with a placid smile. Rey complied, taking a breath and continuing to look into Yasha's eyes, finding her own reflection in them.

"And then?"

"And then simply let it be," Yasha explained. "Feel that the Force is within you and within me, that you and I are connected, that my memories are yours and yours are mine." Yasha's words flowed smoothly, silkily from her. "Know that what you seek in my memories travels along a long thread into your own."

When Yasha closed her eyes, Rey followed suit, thought she could not tell if it was of her own volition or if she had complied because of Yasha's suggestion. Whatever the case, she felt herself slowly descending into the depths of Yasha's thoughts. Images and sounds swirled around her, though many were blurred or unclear. Rey did see clearly, however, the vision of a young girl inking something onto paper with dexterity and ease. The plans...

Rey gasped quietly and opened her eyes, glancing over at Yasha. The plans, just as Yasha had promised, had seemed to travel into Rey's mind. But one thing that she saw besides the blueprints for the Crawlers now nagged at her.

"Your father wasn't the one who designed the Crawler," she stated. Yasha gave a small smile.

"My father was better with his hands. I just had the ideas," she laughed gently. "Before I left to train with Master Skywalker, we'd planned to build it one day. It just didn't happen... many things didn't happen as they were meant to."

"It's excellent - if we can get our hands on the materials, it's perfect," Rey insisted. "Why did you lie and say that your father had designed it? It's yours -"

"A person chooses what they want to be," Yasha explained. "I wanted to be a Jedi. In order for that to become true... there were a great many things I could _not_ be."

"Maybe that isn't the way it needed to be," Rey pointed out casually, shifting so she could open the trunk she was sitting on and pulling out some charcoal and a brittle piece of paper on which to sketch out the plans for the Crawler before she forgot them. "Maybe that's why the Jedi died off, because they couldn't change with the times."

The casual observation was one that, for whatever reason, appeared to truly shake Yasha. She lost the calm facade that she wore just moments earlier and took a sharp breath, clasping her hands in her lap. There was truth to it, but it was a truth that Yasha was not yet prepared to face. Instead, she remained silent the way the Jedi did when they were troubled, because turmoil was a friend of Chaos, and Chaos was the weapon of the Dark Side. She'd learned those lessons well, and she continued to carry them with her.

With sketch in hand, refined with some of Yasha's advice, Rey exited the room with Yasha following slowly behind. Upon their exit, they found that the meeting in the Great Room only just been adjourned and the throng of Resistance fighters now headed for a mid-day meal in good spirits. The Resistance had, even after the tragedies they had experienced, recovered for the most part and found some semblance of joy again in its daily motions. Wading through the crowd, Rey struggled to pick out a familiar face now that the plans were laid. She simply needed a team - filled with excitement at being part of something so grand filled her with a thrill, even if it pained her at times, even if she did not always understand. This was, she realized, what it felt like to belong.

"Finn," Rey called out over the crowd making its way to the mess hall - and like a ship drawn to a beacon of light, he immediately turned to the source of her voice, unable to conceal a smile from pulling onto his face as she drew near. "Finn, look at this," she said, brandishing the sketch of the Crawler and giving it a gentle shake. "This is what's going to get us intelligence from the First Order - I just need to build it," she said simply.

"With what?"

"Well, I know exactly where to get the supplies I need," Rey said simply, gesticulating gently with the hand that held the sketched out plans. "I just need to go back to -"

"Let me guess," Finn said with a good-natured roll of his eyes. "You need to go back to Jakku. Imagine that -"

"I want you to come with me, to help me," Rey spoke up, and immediately, Finn's protests stopped. His mouth shut, he blinked, momentarily dumbfounded. "Chewie could use a rest, he's been through enough the past week or so. And I'm sure you'll be a good enough co-pilot." Finn paused, though he wasn't sure what motivated his hesitation - he wanted to go with her. Even if he didn't want to, he still obviously would. Still, damned if he wasn't pretty shellshocked every time someone said they wanted to go back to Jakku, as though it were some sort of destination. People around here, he mused, certainly were not versed in the art of saving their own hides.

Finally, with a heavy exhale, he grinned and nodded. "When do we leave?"

"Right now," Rey nodded - and this time, she took a hold of his hand, pulling him towards the exit, out towards the Millennium Falcon lay waiting to take them to Jakku.

Meanwhile, from a distance, Yasha Faygill looked on. Her expression was pensive, having witnessed their entire exchange. Rey was the hope of the Jedi. Rey was among the keys to their victory - yet even she allowed herself to succumb to joy, to succumb to her emotions and her attachments to others. Was that not against the Jedi way? Yasha's brow knitted as her confusion grew, the more she mulled over the situation in her mind. In every permutation. with every possible attempt to explain it away, it made less and less sense - was less and less congruent with the beliefs she had been trained in.

"Perhaps," came a familiar voice behind her, "even a Master is entitled to his mistakes."

Yasha turned around to see Luke standing behind her, and when she turned to face him, his expression roved over hers before slowly glancing upwards.

"For many years, you've followed me, despite the fact that I am no longer your teacher. You still continued learning from me," he stated with a small bow of his head. "And it pains me now to wonder if perhaps I led both you and Ben astray."

"Master Skywalker?" Yasha asked, her head tilting to one side. "I don't think I understand -"

"When I began taking young Jedi into my tutelage, I was very much like you were - young, and still unlearned in all of the nuances of the Force," he began, nodding for her to walk with him. "We were able to defeat the Galactic Empire with new ways, not with the old. But the Old Ways were all I knew how to teach, because they were the ways of my teachers. How could I admit to an entire generation of students that even I did not know all the ways of the Force?" he added with a quiet laugh - and laughter was something which Yasha could not claim to remember ever having heard from him.

"I don't understand," she repeated, shaking her head.

"This is a new war. This is a new age," Luke stated as they reached the outside. He took in a deep breath of the clean air and looked at the young woman beside him, who tensed at the beginning of his statement, which unbeknownst to the aged Jedi Master echoed very closely the words that Rey had spoken just moments earlier. "In this war, your emotions are not a weakness. They are your strength. These are new ways, Yasha Faygill... but we all must learn them."

* * *

 _A/N_

 _Just a brief note to thank everyone for all of your support for this story so early on! Slowly easing into the meat of the story. Next chapter will introduce a few more familiar faces. Until next update, cheers!_


	3. Reconaissance

_"It is not now as it hath been of yore;—_  
 _Turn wheresoe'er I may,_  
 _By night or day,_  
 _The things which I have seen I now can see no more..."_

 ** _\- from "Ode. Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood" by William Wordsworth_**

* * *

The First Order continued to hum with activity, despite the loss of the Starkiller Base - despite the fact that it was an entire planet, the Supreme Leader had instilled in them the belief that it was only a small loss. It was only a temporary setback to their inevitable conquest. Perhaps they wandered without a home planet for the time being, but this was always temporary. There was no need for such sentimental concepts as _home_ , so long as there was a place from which they could continue their plans.

The ship was as much of a _home_ as was needed.

The familiar halls onboard their spacecraft were cold metal, suited to their needs. There was no need to harbor warmth or comfort here. Such things were luxuries afforded for those too weak to survive. There was, however, a great deal of other things onboard that admittedly were of great use and great value. As such, the ability to navigate the ship unseen would yield a generous prize - a generous prize that a particular droid would attain with surprisingly little resistance. Creeping through the shadows and exiting through a hatch that led to the outside through the hangar, the Crawler crept triumphantly away, launching itself back into space towards the transport pod that would carry it back to its location of origin.

Kylo Ren saw it leave from where he stood in his own chambers, behind a table with a digital projection map perched next to the table with a view outside of the galaxy he had been assured in time would be his. He knew that no one else would have seen the Crawler. But the sight of the small robotic being was like the completion of a circuit in his mind that had long remained unclosed. So surreal was the sight of it that he did not give a moment's thought to reporting it to Hux, or to the Supreme Leader. It was merely an artifact of a distant memory. Kylo Ren thought only of the meaning of a single realization: he recognized the Crawler. He knew it well because he had helped to design it, long ago. It was his. He nearly felt something that resembled anger upon seeing it, as though something had been stolen from him - but he reminded himself again.

No, he insisted, allowing his eyes to drift shut behind his mask as he stared out into the vastness of the sky in the direction where the Crawler had disappeared. The idea had not belonged to him. It was an idea that belonged to Ben Solo, and Ben Solo was gone.

* * *

 _"You're getting it all wrong, you know."_

 _The new girl to the Master Skywalker's Jedi Academy looked up from the sketch she was making, glaring gently at Ben for having interrupted her. He chuckled a bit at her sour expression. She certainly arrived here a bit older than most of the others had. He himself had been here since he was about four or five. The girl, having grown up outside of the Academy for perhaps fourteen or fifteen years by the looks of it, was strange compared to the others. But Master Skywalker had brought her here specifically. She must not have been so bad._

 _"You're trying to design a droid, aren't you?" Ben asked when the girl in front of him failed to respond the first time. He'd noticed since her arrival that she spent their few hours of free time in the day from training drawing with charcoal on old sheets of paper. At times, she tucked the drawing charcoal behind her ear, or it got on her fingers and, in her day to day fidgeting, smudged it across her face. "Don't you think that one's going to be a bit slow? It's going to be an enormous hunk of metal."_

 _"What are you talking about?" she asked, her brow furrowing as she looked down at her drawing. The suggestion that there was something wrong with it seemed blasphemous - she had been showing the drawing of the same droid to her father since she was a small child, and he had never said a word against it. He'd even promised that they would build it one day - and now this pompous schoolboy who thought he was a warrior now presumed her knew better? "It's fine -"_

 _"Here," he said. She sneered slightly at his gall, but he was entirely unfazed, taking the stick of drawing charcoal from her hands and reaching onto her paper to change the sketch so that it resembled a spider with a rounded off body and long, bent legs. "It's better, don't you think?"_

 _Better? The girl pursed her lips for a moment, looking back and forth between the dark-haired boy and the sketch in front of her. It was better - but she hardly felt compelled to admit it. She had seen this boy around with the other initiates, strutting around with a throng of others following him as though he was some kind of celebrity. Perhaps, she had to concede, the admiration wasn't completely unfounded - he was smart, to be sure. But still, something about him frustrated her - and frustration, she had quickly learned, was against the way of the Jedi._

 _"Thanks," she said casually, putting on an air of not caring despite the fact that it clearly bothered her immensely. "I'm Yasha."_

 _"Ben Solo," he said with a proud grin. "You might've heard of me."_

 _"Can't say that I have."_

 _"Are you serious?" Ben asked. "My father is Han Solo. The Han Solo. My mother is Princess Leia - heroes of the Galactic Civil War?" Ben pressed on, proudly ticking off the names of his parents as though if he spoke more, if he listed more, the girl would somehow recognize some of it. The blank stare on her face, however, hinted at the fact that hearing about Ben Solo's family tree was not ringing any bells._

 _There was a brief awkward pause as Yasha regarded Ben with a slightly arched eyebrow, cocking her head to one side. "My mother is a baker and my father is a miner - this is the first time I've left Lothal in my entire life. I think I may be excused having heard of many things," she added shortly._

 _Lothal, Ben thought with a chuckle. So this new initiate, Yasha, was a farmgirl who dreamt about building droids and becoming a Jedi Knight - a girl farmgirl who acknowledged no limitations, who clearly was intent on greatness. He could see it in her, behind her plain exterior. There was something quaint about it, he decided. She would make an interesting friend indeed._

* * *

And she had been. To say the least, she had been in his mind the most interesting of the friends in Ben Solo's life - in the life that was now dead and gone. The only thought that remained now in Kylo Ren's mind upon seeing the Crawler was not jealousy or bitterness at the use of the design... but the fact that it meant that the co-designer was alive. Somewhere in the galaxy, Yasha Faygill had returned and was not working alone - Kylo Ren was no longer the same young man, but she was still the same young woman, full of ambition and unyielding to limitations.

"Commander Ren," came the hesitant voice of one of the Stormtroopers appearing in the doorway, snapping him out of his stupor. In the recesses of his mind, he was thankful for the interruption. It would not do to dwell on thoughts of a farmgirl from Lothal who had brought him only weakness in the past. "Supreme Leader Snoke is ready to see you."

"Very well."

"He asked that I escort you, due to your -"

"I can make it myself."

"Commander -"

"I said," Ren roared, pulling his lightsaber from his holster and igniting it with a foreboding zing, "I will go to see Supreme Leader Snoke myself."

The Stormtrooper gave a clumsy bow and made a hasty retreat. Once he was out of sight, Kylo Ren turned and began walking, attempting to be discreet in clutching his still excruciatingly painful side, concealing the limp in one of his legs - all injuries from his fight with that girl from Jakku who he knew of all too well. It was his hatred of her for having bested him that gave him the strength to stand. He needed this hatred. This was the only emotion he could allow himself to succumb to, even if others circled him like vultures, clawing and swiping at his consciousness, attempting to enter his mind. Every step throbbed and ached, but even then, he kept his winces of pain concealed beneath his mask and pushed forward proudly through the corridors of the ship. Here, he had power. Here, he had respect.

Every visit to the chambers of Supreme Leader Snoke, however, came with the same unsettling feeling of apprehension and inadequacy that Kylo Ren could never seem to outgrow. Standing before even this hologram of a man was, though he would never outwardly manifest it, terrifying. He stared down at the masked young man.

"We will try again," Snoke said without any pretense of concern for Kylo's well-being, despite his obvious strain to even make it to the grand chamber. The younger masked man flinched beneath his mask, thankful that the fear instilled by the severity of Snoke's voice could remain concealed. As though aware of the security that Kylo Ren gleaned from his mask, as though nearly gleeful to erase the semblance safety it gave him, Snoke spoke again. "Remove it."

"Supreme Leader -"

 _"Remove it."_

Concealing the quavering of his gloved hands, Kylo Ren reached up to remove his helmet, revealing the still-raw scar that practically now consumed one side of his face. At times, he relished it because it destroyed a part of him that still resembled the boy called Ben Solo. But it was also a reminder of defeat - a token of loss. Ashamed and unable to look up at the Supreme Leader, he kept his head low until he felt the familiar compulsion - Snoke's holographic hand extended, and against Ren's own will, his head was raised to look up at the monolithic projection.

"Perhaps today, Supreme Leader," he said with forced steadiness in his voice. Snoke nodded. He needed for the young man to be prepared for the Imbuing - the next and greatest step in the plans of the First Order. This plan was one that needed to succeed where all others had failed.

Kylo then shut his eyes and felt the familiar mental onslaught of the man entering his mind - the same feeling of being electrocuted throughout his body to which he had been subjected every day since his fight with the Rey and the destruction of the Starkiller Base. And today, again, he fell limp to the ground when it was over, opening his eyes to see the disappointed expression of the Supreme Leader.

"I do not understand," Kylo said through gritted teeth, managing only to rise to a kneeling position. Even in such a vulnerable stance, he felt himself shaking, barely able to hold himself upright. "I do not understand why it fails, Supreme Leader. I killed him. I killed Han Solo -"

"And it was not enough," Supreme Leader Snoke hissed. "It was not enough for the transformation to be completed. You have not yet overcome the Light. You are not yet ready to take your place alongside me, Kylo Ren. You must be the first. You must be ready before the Imbuing can continue, or I will be forced to find _another_..."

"Supreme Leader -"

"I will assign you a new mission. The new plans - you will be charged with scouting the new planets for our acquisitions," Snoke continued, his voice roaring and echoing through the chamber. "The success of the Imbuing will rely on you. And this will be your chance to prove your dedication to the Dark Side."

"My Leader, I do not know -"

"See to it that you succeed, Kylo Ren."

And with that, the hologram of the Supreme Leader disappeared, leaving the scarred young man in darkness. He hissed, finally allowing himself to crumple slightly and succumb to the pain of his injuries - the searing pain that surged through the parts of him that so recently had been practically torn open. He uttered a piteous groan now that he could not be heard in the empty chamber, and he groped in the darkness for his helmet, sliding it back over his face. He could not succumb to pain he reminded himself, beating his fist against his scarred and still tender side as though hoping to beat away the still-searing pain. Accepting pain was admitting weakness, and weakness was a luxury of the Light, he reminded himself.

He could not fail this time. The Supreme Leader had trusted him with this mission - perhaps even the most crucial operation to their success in crushing the Resistance. The Supreme Leader was entrusting this to him. The Imbuing could not fail.

* * *

 _A/N_

 _First of all, Happy to New Year to all of my readers! I know I'm just starting out in this fandom, so I appreciate all of your support and kind words as I gain momentum in this story. For any of you who follow some of my other stories in different fandoms, yes - the poem quoted in the beginning is my favorite, the same one that comes up in "Grim Becomings" as well. In the upcoming chapters, we'll learn more about what the Imbuing is, but I will gladly entertain any theories or guesses. We're also going to slowly ease into knowing more about the history between Ben and Yasha, mixed into the current storyline. Thank you for sticking with me! Until next time, cheers!_


	4. Remembering

"And... there."

Rey and Yasha both knelt next to BB-8 and the Crawler to make sure the data transfer continued without a hitch. BB-8 let out a flurry of enthused beeps to signal everyone that the transfer was complete so they knew to gather around the small droid. It began projecting the video footage obtained from the First Order ship while Yasha retrieved the data drive from the Crawler and brought it to their main control panel in order to see if any of the data it had pulled from the ship's systems could be accessed.

Yasha was slightly distracted, as she often was, at the sight of one pair in particular. Finn immediately appeared apprehensive at the mere sight of the inside of the Order's ship again, and Rey, quickly noting his reaction, reached out and gave his shoulder a slight squeeze. Clearing her throat gently, Yasha tore her gaze away and returned to work just as the footage began to show the Crawler getting past the hangar and into the main body of the ship.

'There's protected data retrieved from control room seven," Yasha spoke up as her eyes roved over what was available to them. "BB-8, can we move to that part of the footage?"

A series of beeps again, and the video playback began to speed up considerably - there was a brief moment as the Crawler roved down the hallway, winding its small scope camera under every door, that there was a brief glimpse of one masked figure in particular, but it moved quickly. Yasha bit her tongue to keep from requesting BB-8 to go back. Instead, she kept quiet as the video continued to the doors of Control Room 7. The Crawler could be seen moving up the side of the door, into the shadows, and winding the small scope camera into the gap.

This control room as brightly illuminated by screens and projections like a few of the others, but the camera on the Crawler wasn't close enough to make sense of them. In front of the control panel, a single Storm Trooper sat, apparently sleeping with their hands folded in their lap.

"KR-3360," Finn said with a slight curl of his upper lip. "I always knew he was dozing off when he was on camera duty."

The gathered Resistance seemed to draw closer to try and see whatever they could from the footage, but the best that could be made out were a few maps. Yasha felt as though they'd caught a glimpse of the maps elsewhere on the footage when they had been watching it in rapid fast-forward but couldn't quite place where she had seen it.

"We need that data," she said in light exasperation. "The Crawler was able to retrieve some of the data files, but they're secured. I can't -"

"Hold on," Finn spoke up, eyes flitting around the projection and gesturing at the time marked on the far wall. "In ninety seconds, the timer will go off for the hourly security check and 3360 will have to perform the routine security," he stated knowingly. "Or Phasma'll show up and do it for him. Wouldn't be the first time."

So for a short while, the room waited with breath, and sure enough in less than two minutes there was the sound of beeping on the feed and the sleeping Storm Trooper awoke - he reached over and punched a code into the keypad at the control panel.

"Got it," Finn said, working his way over to where Yasha was sitting. "If the layout on the control panel is the same as it used to be, I think I have the security code."

Yasha happily obliged in moving aside so Finn could try to get into the file. He punched in a code, but on this first attempt, appeared to have entered it erroneously. He grimaced, but reached out to try again. This time the files opened, and he pumped his fist in triumph, breaking into a wide grin and again meeting eyes with Rey who gave him a proud, acknowledging nod.

General Leia now moved over to stand next to them at the control panel to look over the exposed files, and across the faces of Finn, Yasha, and Leia all the same, a concerned expression blossomed. Yasha leaned forward, resting her hands against the edge of the control panel. Leia crossed her arms over herself, shaking her head. Curious and unable to resist, Rey, too, wandered over to stand next to them and look at what had been exposed.

"The Imbuing?" she read aloud, her brow furrowing in confusion. "This is their new plan?"

"They're scouting planets in our galaxy for traces of a mineral called Marelignium," Yasha pointed out, gestured gently with her index finger to where a few different planets were lit up on the map - planets she knew, due to knowledge from what felt like a past life, shared one thing in common. "It's a rare substance found in the outer core of certain planets - very small amounts. There was a rush to mine for it, years ago, but it was so rare that the return on investment was practically nothing."

"So why do they want to go looking for it again?" Rey asked. "If it didn't work before -"

"Marelignium is a power source. In large amounts, it's extremely potent - extremely destabilizing," Yasha stated - there were times, she realized, that growing up a poor miner's daughter had its advantages after all. "Miners used to make good business selling even small amounts, especially to medics. It's so destabilizing that it disrupts the surrounding energy fields, and even allows the transfer of energy from person to person."

"Hold on."

General Leia gestured for the others to step aside slightly so she could take over at the control panel, scrolling through some of the data they had unearthed until the sight of one dataset in particular caused her to inhale sharply, covering her mouth in one hand. Sensing her reaction, Finn, Rey, and Yasha drew nearer to her once again and glanced at the plans. "They're calling their plan the Imbuing," she nodded. "This is why they need the Marelignium."

"They're going to try and fuse the power of their leader to all of his followers - into the entire First Order," Yasha said in realization as well. "This is how they're going to build up their army."

The buzz and murmur in the room upon this revelation rumbled like a low boil. An entire army infused with the consciousness and the power of one man? Roving the entire galaxy to unearth just traces of a precious mineral? It was practically unheard of. She felt the apprehension in the pit of her stomach growing.

"Everyone," Leia said calmly, again raising her hands to get everyone's attention. "This is important information - very important. But it is not something we can act on yet. The best we can do is wait and plan - this is..."

Her voice trailed off slightly, and she cleared her throat. It went without saying why such revelations were difficult for even their accomplished General. The First Order included her son - and that meant, if all went as planned, she would lose yet another piece of him, if there was even a piece left.

"...this is a lot to process," she conceded, nodding with her eyes momentarily shut. "We should adjourn for now."

The reverence the members of the Resistance shared for General Organa was a combination of the respect allotted to a fearless leader, and the love given to a beloved Princess, even if she refused to be referred to as such any longer. It was in rare moments like these, when the cool composure of their brave leader melted away, that their hearts thought better than to force the role upon her. Slowly, they filed away, allowing her a moment of mourning - they trickled from the room until only Finn, Rey, and Yasha remained at the General's side, and as they others left, they revealed that Luke, too, sat silently on the other side of room. Leia sank gently into a chair at the control panel. BB-8 let out a series of beeps again and the projector began to power down before Leia raised her hand to stop the droid from turning off the projection.

"One more thing," she said quietly, her eyes fixed on the projector screen. And, even as a mere piece of machinery, BB-8 understood what that one thing was. The footage quickly rewound itself to one spot in particular, the same moment that had caught Yasha's eye earlier as well, when the Crawler's camera had stopped in the quarters of Kylo Ren.

And finally, now, in the nearly empty Great Room, Leia hunched over at the sight of her long-lost son, letting out a single choked sob. Ben. Perhaps it had been better when she had not seen him this way, hunched over a table covered in maps, apparently studying them intently. The way his shoulders drooped, the way he shifted his weight and clutched his side - Leia knew her son. She knew that he was struggling and in pain, and that there was nothing she could do for him - for a mother, there was no greater torture.

Leia Organa had nearly been able to convince herself that she had let him go. After word had arrived of Han's death, Leia had nearly been able to make herself believe that she harbored anger towards her son - yet seeing him this way destroyed those thoughts.

Yasha, on the other hand, remained standing - her face turned a sickly pale color, almost green and ill at the sight of the man in the projected image. She had not seen him in years, and yet, even while he was masked and showed no signs of the young man she'd once known, she knew. "Excuse me," she said shakily, quickly taking her leave to be alone.

Soon, Rey and Finn both thought it best to leave as well - but for hours, sitting in her own allotted quarters, Rey could not find herself settled. Even long into the night, she continued to mull over everything that had come to light in just a matter of hours. The least of all her concerns, to her surprise, was the new plans of the First Order. Plans and strategies were things that could be addressed, could be calculated and approached with careful tactics. What stayed with her, what kept her awake, was the fact that despite all that Kylo Ren had done, despite all of the people he had hurt and the lives he had destroyed, he was still someone whose memory lingered.

And Yasha.

The woman, slightly older than Rey herself, seemed so aged - so weathered. The merciless control the woman exerted on her emotions all in the name of the Jedi Code confused Rey - this Code had caused Yasha, as far as Rey could tell, nothing but misery, and yet she committed herself to following it. The tales that Rey had always heard of the Jedi were great ones that told of strong men and women of many races, who were at peace in their own souls and brought peace in turn to the Galaxy. But where was the peace in Yasha Faygill? Rey saw only pain. How, then, was the return of Luke Skywalker and his only remaining pupil meant to give any of them hope?

The lingering questions and the unsettling feeling of foreboding was enough to make Rey pace across her floor so many times she lost count, and when this brought her no relief, she wandered outside of her quarters, outside to the airstrip where there was complete quiet. However, she found upon surveying her surroundings that she was not alone in her late night wanderings - Luke Skywalker, too, stood outside at the far end of the airstrip, looking up at the sky.

Rey strode purposely towards him, stopping just behind him. Knowingly, Luke turned around and drew in a deep breath at the sight of her the same way he did the first time she had approached him at the top of the mountain on the deserted island - there was a strange familiarity and an apprehension in his eyes every time he looked at her that no one seemed to question. Everyone seemed to look past it, but Rey saw it - felt it every time.

"There's something that no one has told me," Rey finally spoke up, her voice clear in the still night. Luke tensed, the motion an unfamiliar sight in the normally composed, cold Jedi Master. Rey momentarily frowned, not understanding, but instead moved on. "About Yasha."

The short addition, though only two words long, caused visible relief in the older man.

"I saw his face in her memories - just for a moment," Rey stated. "When she showed me the plans for the Crawler. And now, the way she looked when she saw him. There's a connection between them that no one is telling me."

"They trained as Jedi together - I was their teacher," Luke stated simply. "They grew close to one another."

"And then?"

The insistence on answers nearly made a smile appear on Luke's weathered face, though it morphed quickly into a pain expression. "And then," he began, "I believe my mentorship may have sent them down their respective paths. I suspect that much of this is my doing."

He turned and took a few steps away, placing distance between himself and Rey, who now regarded him with confusion. Luke steadied himself before turning back to face Rey. This, he realized, would be the first time that he acknowledged these things - these hidden burdens within him that rendered him weak. "It was for their own good," he continued, sounding unconvinced and instead pleading for it to be truth. "I asked that Yasha make a decision that Ben Solo never could have. He could not have been trusted to choose wisely. He led with emotion - his mind was clouded," Luke said, shaking his head. "I should have known then that it was not only my teachings that he had opened his mind to. All I knew what that the fate of the Jedi Order rested on my shoulders. I knew that Yasha could be trusted to do what was best."

"Master Skywalker?"

Luke gritted his teeth gently, steeling his resolve before taking a few steps closer to the young woman, reaching out and gently taking hold of her hands. He raised her hands so they hovered on either side of his face. Rey knew what this meant. "It would be better," Luke began, "if I showed you."

He shut his eyes, and allowed one memory in particular to be shared between himself and Rey.

* * *

 _It was evening again, but in a place far different than the airstrip on D'Qar - a heavily wooded area, peaceful and beautiful. A younger Yasha Faygill was leaving a wooded clearing with Luke Skywalker, her arms wrapped gently around herself against the cold evening breeze. Yasha took her nightly meditations, perhaps, more seriously than most - just as she did most parts of their training despite her young age. However, before they could return to the living quarters of the Jedi Academy, Luke paused - and his pupil did the same. Instead of heading back to the compound, he veered towards a wrought iron bench and took a seat, gesturing for his young pupil to follow._

 _"Master Luke?"_

 _"Ben Solo," he spoke up quietly, sending a knowing glance in his pupil's direction. Normally, Yasha Faygill's composure was unshakeable, but now she gave a small gasp. Her face reddened slightly and her gaze shifted momentarily to the ground, so that Luke's suspicions about the pair were all but confirmed. "He is a gifted apprentice, as are you. My two best," Luke stated. "But, Yasha -"_

 _"Master, Ben... he makes me want to do better. To be better," Yasha explained, her voice shaking with anxiety. "Surely that isn't -"_

 _"This is not the way of the Jedi Knights," Luke interrupted calmly. "Yasha, you know this. How would you see this end?" The question was one that the younger woman could not answer, and instead, she averted her gaze again. It pained Luke to see her now struggling, but he knew that it needed to be done. Luke cared for his pupils, but he was also honor-bound to preserve the Jedi Order. Yasha Faygill and Ben Solo were his two strongest pupils, the best hope of the Order - but all the teachings he had known of the Jedi Way indicated that what was growing between them would only mean pain. It would take them away from their training. "You are both equally gifted," Luke continued, though he saw the beginning of tears forming in the young woman's eyes. "But you are the only one who has the ability to put your emotions aside and do what is right. You know this to be true, Yasha. You remember what happened on Balmorra."_

 _Yasha drew in a deep breath and raised her eyes to meet those of her Master, bravely facing his gaze and processing what he was asking of her. "What happened on Balmorra was a simple mistake," she reasoned weakly. "It won't happen again."  
_

 _"And you can promise this, Yasha?"_

 _She was trying. Luke, however, saw the turmoil within her and realized that even she would struggle. Even Yasha would not so easily be able to put aside what had grown between herself and Ben Solo. And then, in a moment of weakness perhaps, Luke raised his hand and gently gestured in front of Yasha's face. Immediately, her eyes went slightly unfocused; her shoulders slumped. Luke hesitated momentarily as it dawned on him what he was doing, but realized that now, he might as well finish what he had already started._

 ** _"What you have with Ben Solo cannot continue."_**

 _"What I have... with Ben Solo... cannot..."_

 _But the sentence, spoken in a blank and flat-toned voice, went uncompleted - Yasha shook her head furiously, and her expression morphed into one of hurt and shock that her Master had attempted to manipulate her mind. He had not trusted her to make the choice. She leapt to her feet, looking down at Luke Skywalker in confusion, backing away slowly. Her teacher, who she had trusted, had tried to delve into her mind and control her...  
_

 _Luke, too, stared at his pupil in shock - she had fought back against it. It had not worked._

 _Yasha opened her mouth to speak, but the sound of footsteps drawing nearer rendered her silent. Both Yasha and Luke turned in the direction of the steps in time for the sound of a small child's voice._

 _"Papa!"_

* * *

Rey flinched when suddenly, she felt Luke Skywalker's mind suddenly closed off to her, and she opened her eyes in surprise to see that he had taken a large step away. He now looked strangely nervous, guilty even.

"I'm sorry," he stammered. "I can show you nothing more."

For a moment, they were at a standstill, looking at one another with unspoken words and countless questions swirling in the air around them. First, Rey was tempted to ask about his strange reaction to her arrival earlier - why had he become so tense? Why had he been relieved that Rey wanted to asked about Yasha? Was there something else that he was hiding from her? But Rey knew that she could expect no clear answer from him. Not from a Jedi. "You Jedi," she said with a slightly bitter chuckle, shaking her head. "You're no help at all. What's wrong with it? What's wrong with caring for other people?"

"Because you will choose those you love over the greater good," Luke answered - no, recited. It was a phrase he had clearly spoken many times, even rehearsed, but the grimace on his face indicated that perhaps he did not necessarily believe it. "You will hurt, and you will mourn. You will not fulfill your mission if you allow your mind to be clouded."

"Then you're just the same as them - as the Order. As Kylo Ren," Rey replied vehemently, her face slightly contoured in frustration. "You're no different. You're cold, and you're numb."

"The Light and the Dark are not separate. The coexist, they need one another," Luke explained, allowing his eyes to flutter shut as though he was in pain of some kind. "The Jedi exist to maintain balance in the Force. The Dark Side of the Force is chaos and hate - it cannot go unchecked. That is why the Jedi are still needed."

"Control. Order," Rey nodded in comprehension. "These things combat Chaos. But do coldness and indifference combat hate? Is that what brought the Jedi victory before?"

And at the strange wisdom that had come from the mouth of the young woman, one still mostly uninitiated in the ways of the Jedi, Luke snapped to attention, staring at her in confusion. He knew the answer to her question, but in that moment, he could not provide it.

* * *

 _A/N's_

 _Slightly longer chapter than usual, but hopefully your guys enjoyed it! The support and feedback from all of you has been awesome! Keeping this note short for now to work more on the next update. "What happened in Balmorra" will be revealed at a later date! Until next chapter, cheers!  
_


	5. Run-In

"So let me get this straight," Finn said as they disembarked from the Millennium Falcon - he, Rey, Yasha, and to their surprise the General herself had elected to scout the premises on the old abandoned moon. Chewie remained on the ship, with orders to set the counter for detonation from his place on the ship the instant he saw them heading back. This moon was the first named target for the operation known as the Imbuing, but looked like nothing to be impressed by. "We're going to stop them from getting these special moon rocks... by blowing up the moon. Is this a thing now? If this a thing that the Resistance does, offer demolition services?"

Rey snickered a little at Finn's reaction, and again, Yasha felt the same twinge of confusion upon seeing them - whatever the affection was that was building between the pair still cause a wave of turmoil in Yasha. Leia, on the other hand, glanced at Yasha, fully knowing and understanding the source of the girl's confusion. She was confused because, Leia realized, Luke had perhaps trained her too well.

"This used to be a slave colony," Yasha pointed out, taking the leader and pressing the small switch on her wristband so that it projected a small representation of the plans they had gathered from the Crawlers. Her other hand drifted unconsciously to the place on her belt where her lightsaber had now returned, in case it was needed. She had never truly lost the weapon that tied her to her past as a Jedi apprentice, but had kept it tucked away because she could not bear the reminder. For years on the desert island with Luke Skywalker, there had been no need for it, and certainly no need for the memories it bore. It had once been an honor to have been considered worthy of the most trusted weapon of the Jedi...

Now, however, such sentimentalities could not be entertained. Yasha cleared her throat and shook her head fervently, returning to her previous train of thought. "It's a small moon, connected by a series of underground tunnels. The tunnels should be deep enough that with enough strategically placed explosives -"

"We'd bring down a whole planet. Again," Finn asked - normally, he could have been counted on to deliver the statement with some level of naive joy, but instead, the familiarity of the situation left his tone somber. It was too similar. Now, it was Yasha who sensed the discomfort of the situation, the collective ache of the memory of the siege on the Starkiller Base and the loss that had been suffered there.

"This one's smaller - smallest moon in our system," Yasha replied calmly, adjusting the strap of the sack over her shoulder and attempting to exude calm - to be the calm in the storm, the way a good Jedi was meant to. "It'll be much easier. There shouldn't be any complications."

But Leia knew, even if no one else did, how heavily laden the young woman was by being thrown back in the midst of familiar faces and situations. This was simply how she handled such turmoil - focusing wholly on the tasks before her and not the thoughts within her. Yasha stepped on ahead of them, eyes focused on the map, but the bluish glow of the projection only served to highlight the fine lines that creased her face around her eyes. She followed the map to a particular spot, marked by a slightly sunken square in the dry dirt on the planet's surface. She stopped and gave a hard stomp in the center of the square, revealing a door that gave way under her foot and exposed the entrance to the slave tunnels. She glanced back over her shoulder, and the others hurried forward. Each of them clambered one by one down into the tunnels, careful to avoid excessively jostling the rucksacks of explosive charges on their backs.

There was clear apprehension when Yasha suggested that they split up in order to cover more ground in a shorter span of time, but she had already run off in another direction before anyone could contradict the order. It was, Leia knew, in the girl's nature. She planned, then she acted - she strove not to waste time with apprehensions.

The steady pace of her footfall against the cold ground served like the drum on a ship, spurning her forward through the tunnels as she spaced the explosives she carried throughout the tunnel. This was a mission with an objective. This was something she did not need to struggle to understand, and as such, she allowed her sense of duty to overtake her mind - it washed away, even only for this fleeting moment, the turmoil of emotion that had plagued her for days since arriving at the Resistance Headquarters.

Her concentration was broken, however, when the steady, echoing rhythm of her own footsteps became marred with another rhythm - a different, faster pace that was growing louder. Someone was coming. Just as she realized this, there was the sound of a low rumbling chuckle as the second set of footsteps came to a halt a short distance behind her.

"Young Apprentice Faygill," the modulated voice boomed from the other end of the dark tunnel. Yasha froze, and realized how foolish it had been to assume that the First Order would have wasted any time in sending someone to gather the Marelignium samples from here. "How kind of you to come straight to me."

"Commander Ren," Yasha replied in a near snarl, even before turning around. She drew her lightsaber and ignited it with a satisfying sound before turning to face him in person for the first time in years. There was a low rumbling sound - laughter - and Yasha knew precisely why. The man in the mask relished the sound of her calling him Commander - of hearing her concede his superiority while calling her an Apprentice even though she no longer was one. Even without seeing him, she could imagine his face, smug and chuckling, eyes glinting in a way that Yasha would have once found endearing. Now, she could not. She would not. "Fight me."

There was a moment of hesitation on both of their parts - a short moment where each considered refusing to fight after all. However, in time, each overcame this doubt. Both lunged forward at the same time to meet in an onslaught of parries and thrusts, of red clashing against green. It was nearly dance-like, with each practically able to foretell the other's next move because they had fought many times before in their training. They'd once made each other better fighters, and as such, were deadlocked now. Kylo Ren eventually managed to force Yasha into a motion of retreat, pushing her back a few paces where she stumbled on a stone in the dark - she rolled away just barely in time to avoid a lancing blow, a downward slice of the bright red lightsaber.

"You still fight the same, farmgirl," Kylo Ren growled once their weapons were again locked against one another; he leaned in close to her face so he could study her face, twisted in her concentration on their fight. "Predictable. You never change," he sneered.

Yasha pushed away and swept around to stand behind him, though he quickly turned so not to be attacked from behind. Yasha, bearing a smirk, swept her foot around and swiftly knocked his legs out from under him, leaping away quickly before he could strike back.

"Neither do you... _lit_ _tle prince_ ," she said with a sneer curled partly into a grin. Hearing the old nickname, one that had once been teasing and playful, now made Kylo almost sick to his stomach. He leapt to his feet again and lunged toward Yasha, who again blocked the blow.

"You fight well," Kylo snarled. "As well as I remembered. Unsurprising. You learned your skills well. Because what else does a little farm girl from Lothal have to offer?"

"Less talking," Yasha sneered in response as their lightsabers crackled loudly, locked into a momentary stalemate - Kylo attempted to pivot his own weapon, to strike her with the short blade at the hilt of his saber, only to have her deftly push it away. "More fighting."

"Of course you'd say that," Kylochuckled darkly. "Because you envied me. You studied every technique until you ate, slept, and breathed them, because you could never master the Force the way I could -"

"You? Master the Force?" Yasha hissed. Her eyes were dark, her glare sharp - Kylo knew that he had hit the same nerve he always had when they were young, the very same sense of inadequacy and thirst to prove herself. She had always wanted so desperately to _be someone_. Perhaps a small part of him wanted to push these buttons, to see this fire in her - to make their fight _interesting_. "No Jedi Master would be bested by a mere farm girl."

And suddenly, Yasha was dominant and on the offensive, swinging furiously so that the green glow of her lightsaber was a mere blur as she struck blow after blow, with Ren visibly more strained to block each swing while clad in his heavy garments. The better she fought, the more he _remembered_ about her - and the more he was forced to remember the past, the more he hated her. Yasha Faygill always needed to be the best - the top pupil, the most disciplined, the most dedicated. Kylo remembered all too well. _He_ had been the more with more innate skill, more natural-born power, more sensitivity to the Force. He had been born to be the best, and yet somehow, a farmgirl with Lothal who had been brought to the Jedi Temple with nothing but the clothes on her back was _better_.

His movements in his anger grew more erratic - less clean, less controlled - while Yasha remained focused, placing each strike with precision. Desperately, Kylo Ren lunged, only to have the woman in front of him dive out of the way. He let out a groan as he felt a sharp blow between his shoulderblades - the hilt of her lightsaber, rather than the blade. She had chosen not to deal a fatal blow.

Still, Kylo fell to the ground and his weapon landed, skidding away from him several paces. He looked up at Yasha, who stared down at him with eyes filled anger and hatred and... tears? He felt his chest tighten inexplicably at the realization that a part of Yasha Faygill still would weep for him, and in that moment, he hated her for it. The fact that she wept for him meant that she still saw _him_. She still saw Ben Solo when she looked at him, and Kylo Ren wanted very much for Ben Solo to be dead. Even then, she raised her own weapon above her head, prepared to strike. He reached up to remove his mask - if he was going to die at her hands, he would face it this way. He prove himself dignified, better than her at least in his own acceptance of Fate. She stared down at his face, now etched over with a wide, crimson scar as a souvenir from his encounter with Rey. Her hands quavered and moved as though ready to end this - to sever their once-strong bond once and for all when a voice echoed from the other end of the tunnel.

"Yasha, no!"

General Leia Organa, accompanied by Rey and Finn, approached from behind and apparently on the General's order seized hold of Yasha's arms, lowering them and forcing her to drop her weapon. The young woman, however, was no long the calm, composed Jedi Apprentice. Instead, the thrashed against their hold so violently that Leia could not even release her long enough to approach her son. Instead, the older woman was forced to regard him from afar, being the closest she had been to him for many years. Ren looked up at his mother and looked as though he would be sick.

"I'm going to finish this," Yasha growled through gritted teeth, still struggling against all three of them, her eyes darting back and forth between Kylo Ren and her weapon that had fallen to the ground. Her teeth gnashed, and her face developed a cold, feral quality far different from the Yasha who had been on her way to master the Jedi's way of peace and disconnection. There was an undeniable chill at the pit of Kylo's stomach - she too was in turmoil. She too was being torn apart. "I need this to end - he needs to -"

"Yasha, you can't kill him," Leia said, yanking back on the girl's arm desperately and paling at the anger within such a deceiving form. This anger, too, was something that Leia Organa realized her son had shared with this girl - something that existed within both, haunted both. "You've won. You've survived. You don't need to kill. You were supposed to be the better Jedi, remember?"

"Maybe I never was."

The words seemed to pierce through Kylo as he heard them as he immediately scrambled to his feet, narrowing his eyes. Leia glanced him over and began shaking - the sensation of trembling hands was what managed to snap Yasha out of her fury, as this was the woman she had always known to have been strong and steadfast.

"Ben," Leia said weakly., still simultaneously trying to meet her son's gaze and holding back the woman he had moments ago been dueling with. But like a startled deer, the sound of the name was enough to send him off in the other direction. Kylo Ren departed the tunnel and left the members of the Resistance staring after him in confusion. It was only when he was out of sight that Yasha Faygill sank to her knees and began to weep, and Leia Organa, despite having felt anger for the young woman moments earlier for even entertaining the thought of striking down her son, knelt next to her and cried as well.

"We need to go," Rey spoke up hesitantly, sharing a confused glance with Finn who clearly had no idea how to handle the situation either. "Chewie's waiting for us on the ship. We still have a job to do."

Brought back to reality, Leia and Yasha came apart, getting to their feet and nodding. Leia reached out and gave the younger woman's shoulder one more squeeze, staring into her eyes and sensing a pain that she herself felt as well.

"I know," Leia stated simply before they departed back for the surface. "I know."

* * *

 _A/N's_

 _Some of the reviews I have received have been wanting to see more flashbacks and know more of Yasha's history with Ben Solo. I have a lot of their history developed but had not initially planned on having a lot of it in the story - only the scenes which were most important. However, it does sound like it is something that a good number of readers might enjoy. So, if you'd like to see more flashback-type scenes in future chapters (or if you don't, either way!), I would appreciate your feedback! I have the main points of the story planned out already, but I would love to bring all of you in on the process of making it better! I know reviews are being weird, but I have been able to see them, an appreciate every single precious one!  
_

 _Thanks to all of you again for all of your support so far! Until next update (which might be a little bit delayed due to my school term starting up again), cheers!_


	6. Response

"It's insane, isn't it?" Poe asked with a lopsided grin as he handed a flask to Finn while they sat atop the roof. "One second you're in one of those white robot suits, then all of a sudden, you're a big hero."

"Hero?" Finn asked skeptically, taking the flask from Finn's hand with some hesitation. "Me? I don't think so. I..."

His voice trailed off as he looked down into the inside of the flask, the sides of his mouth tugging into a grimace as he took a brief whiff. Seeing him, Poe chuckled, leaning his elbows on his knees.

"Never had a drink before, Finn?" he asked, cocking his head to one side. "If you haven't, you might wanna start slow. But it'll put hair on your chest."

Finn still seemed unconvinced by Poe's encouragement, but managed to tip a small amount of the strong-smelling liquid into his mouth. Immediately upon swallowing, he frowned and cleared his throat, shaking his head fervently - the reaction garnered a hearty round of laughter from Poe Dameron.

"You hang around us long enough, we'll show you how to unwind," he guffawed, taking the flask back and taking a swig himself before tucking it back into the pocket of his vest. "Trust me, you'll appreciate it one day."

This experience - sitting with a friend and sharing a drink - was nothing new to Poe Dameron, but fascinating and foreign to Finn. Friendship certainly did not look like this among Stormtroopers, and Finn went so far as to wonder if prior to defecting he had ever actually known what friendship was at all. Poe would, undoubtedly, have Finn's gratitude for having been his ticket out of his old life, even if it meant leaving the only things in life he had known.

"So we did some maintenance on the Millennium Falcon after you all landed last night," Poe spoke up after a short silence. "Couple of the guys heard the black box audio from the flight back."

"That's nothin'," Finn stated, still awestruck. "It was... intense."

"So it's true?" Poe asked, his face creasing in concern while he leaned in closer to Finn eager for more answers. "What we heard you all talking about on the tapes? Yasha coulda ended it right then and there, and the General stopped her?"

Finn hesitated in answering the question, only because the accusatory tone in Poe's voice was, for the first time, unusually unsettling. There was the implication that he knew the answer, and was waiting only for enough confirmation to warrant his reaction. Finally, Finn took a breath and shrugged in resignation, a frown crossing his expression. "Commander Ren is still her son, Poe -"

"Are you sure about that?" Poe retorted. He groaned, reaching up and scratching the back of his neck in frustration before scooting even closer to Finn as though what he was about to say to him contained some secret - as though he feared being heard. His eyed narrowed gently, marring his normally handsome features with suspicion. Poe Dameron was one of a very small handful who now knew Kylo Ren's true identity, being a major player in the inner circle of the Resistance - his status as their best pilot afforded him that much. "We can't keep giving him free passes because of who he is - not after everything he's done," Poe said, almost with a sneer on his face. "I would follow General Organa anywhere - into any fight," he insisted. "But she's worrying me, Finn. She can't keep protecting him - time's gonna come that protecting him is gonna mean choosing him over us."

"It won't come to that," Finn protested unsurely. "She'll do what she needs to."

"I hope so," Poe said, getting to his feet and crossing his arms over his chest, looking out into the distance. "She's our leader, Finn. When it comes down to it, we need to know she's gonna put the Resistance first. It's only fair."

The words lingered with Finn, even after he and Poe had parted ways for the night and retired to their sleeping quarters. Maybe a year ago, he would have agreed without question. He understood what it meant to choose between family and duty. A long time ago, in another life, he'd had a brother. An older brother. Both of them had been taken from home at the same time - Finn didn't remember if his brother had a name, or precisely what he'd looked like, but he remembered that he was real. But he could not think of him. He could not look for him. They were no longer brothers, because Stormtroopers did not need family. They needed orders.

Now, however, he'd learned - and he'd learned because of Poe, who had helped him to escape that life in the first place. As Finn sat at the edge of his cot, unable to sleep because of the thoughts that plagued him, he realized that he no longer felt the way he did before. There wasn't a hard line to draw between people you loved and the mission you had to fulfill. You didn't always need to choose.

But this was Poe. Could he really be that far off the mark?

It bothered Finn, all of these thoughts swirling together in his head. So, having stayed up for the entire night, he decided to simply start his day. Glancing out the window and seeing that the sky, too, was beginning to awaken from pitch black to an inky shade of indigo, he pulled on the comfortable jacket that he had come to truly regard as his own and stepped out of his room. He stepped down the corridors, careful to keep his steps quiet, and out to the the airstrip.

"Finn?"

The voice came at the volume of only a whisper, but fully audible in the silence of the growing dawn. Finn turned around and was unable - perhaps unwilling to suppress a smile at the sight of Rey, who apparently had wandered out in a bout of insomnia as well. She hurried forward with echoing steps to meet him, smiling slightly herself.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping?" Rey smirked, gently irking an eyebrow.

"Shouldn't you?"

In response, Rey chuckled weakly, turning away and taking a few small steps away, wrapping her arms around herself and rubbing her shoulders until she felt a weight fall onto her shoulders. She glanced and realized that Finn had dropped the jacket onto her shoulders with a plaintive shrug. She smiled again and nodded in the direction of one of the small trails that went into the tree cover. "Walk with me?" she asked hopefully.

The pair stepped off into the woods, the echo of their footsteps dulled in the slightly damp earth. For a short while, it was pleasant enough to simply walk together in the quiet early morning. Finn groaned slightly when Rey, a few steps ahead of him, took a generous leap upward, grabbing a hold of a low-hanging tree limb and pulling herself up.

"Come on," she said, reaching back for Finn while extending her hand with a slight smirk on her face. "It's been a long time since I've watched a sunrise with a proper view."

And of course, Finn would humor her. Of course. He wasn't necessarily the biggest fan of climbing, but for Rey, he would obviously have jumped into any tree that she jumped into first - and with great reward, in his mind. Within a few minutes, they had climbed past the thick canopy of tree cover and sat side by side on a thick limb of one of the oldest, largest trees as day began to break over the horizon.

"Why couldn't you sleep?" Rey asked, getting straight to the point, turning to face Finn with her face slightly wrinkled in concern.

"Something Poe said," Fin said honestly, seeing no point in hiding it from Rey of all people. "About General Organa - how she stopped Yasha from killing Comman- Kylo Ren," he said, correcting himself quickly. He no longer needed to refer to him with such reverence, he reminded himself. "He said he was worried that she wouldn't be able to make the right choice, if it came down to it. He was worried -"

"That she'd put her son over the Resistance," Rey said with a slightly disbelieving chuckle. "She wouldn't. She hasn't," she insisted. "But just because she's our leader doesn't mean she's not allowed to be in pain. She has a right to feel those things."

"Of - of course," Finn stammered, slightly surprised at the sudden rush of emotion that it elicited from the young woman. "I - I don't -"

"I'm sorry," she quickly apologized, shaking her head and unconsciously reaching out to squeeze Finn's hand as a means of interrupting his explanations. He looked up and blinked in surprise, unable to conceal it for a moment as her hand, slightly cold from being out in the cool air, clasped over his. Rey, however, seemed to think nothing of it. "I just don't understand all of this - the way everyone hides everything they feel, as though it's going to somehow make everything better," she admitted. "Ever since meeting Master Skywalker..."

Her voice trailed off, and in concern, Finn shifted a little closer, leaning over to try and meet her gaze. Sensing that he was picking up on her internal struggle, Rey forced a quiet laugh, shaking her head and reluctantly withdrawing her hand from his.

"I just don't understand," she repeated. "All my life, all the stories I heard about the Jedi were about hope - about goodness. That's what I always believed the Light Side to be. And that's what I thought I was meant to be too," she admitted. "But the way of the Jedi - the way that Master Skywalker knows?"

"You're talking about Yasha, aren't you? The way she was taught?" Finn asked knowingly. "I've seen it too."

"Is that what I'm meant to be too? Am I supposed to be torn up by hiding things that way? Is that what we're doomed to if we fight for the Light?" Rey asked, honestly tormented by the questions. "Because I don't know if I can, Finn. I care. Maybe I care too much..."

Upon making the last statement, Rey's gaze finally drifted upward to meet Finn's, who gulped at the sudden eye contact and the implication behind it.

"I..." Finn began. "I care -"

"We're going to be late!" Rey piped up suddenly, breaking the prolonged eye contact and nodding out over their surroundings, which were now fully illuminated by daylight. "General Organa called a meeting this morning, remember? Let's go!"

And she rushed back down the tall tree ahead of him. Finn lingered behind for a few seconds, sighing and shaking his head. For someone so bothered by people fighting back their emotions, he was sure that Rey was doing a fairly good job of it herself.

* * *

General Organa felt strangely refreshed every time she addressed the Resistance forces as whole - there was something about seeing them gathered with such dedication and purpose that renewed her determination to keep moving forward, even in spite of all that had happened. The meeting for the morning was a brief one, simply to dispel any rumors of what had happened and to plan their next steps. However, one person had been visibly absent - a person who had been central to the events on the now-defunct slave colony. After the meeting was adjourned, Leia made her way to the the small sleeping quarters that Yasha had settled into. Sure enough, she found the young woman sitting inside the room at the edge of her bed, her expression tired and blank.

"Please tell me it gets better," she said, unable to look up from the floor. "I... I'm sorry, General. If you hadn't found us in those tunnels, I don't know what I would have done."

"You and Ben always brought that out in one another. The best and the worst," Leia said, shutting the door behind her and approaching the woman, sitting next to her. At this, Yasha looked up, visibly surprised at having been approached by the leader of the Resistance and treated as an equal. So much of her life, she had been an apprentice - a subordinate. The simple gesture seemed to catch Yasha completely off guard. "But I saw it in his face. Something about seeing you tortures him."

"I'm sorry -"

"And... I think that's something that needs to happen," Leia said. "Seeing you hurts him, somewhere deep. And as much as I hate to see him hurt, I know that if he only hurts because Ben is still in there somewhere." Yasha's face wrinkled in confusion, her head tilting to one side, and in this innocent expression, Leia again saw a flash of the girl she had known many years ago. This too gave her hope, however misguided it may have been.

"The First Order's next target is Tatooine - there are suspected traces of Marelignium there," Leia stated, inhaling deeply. "And I'd like to send you. Alone."

"Because he'll likely be searching for the sample as well," Yasha replied knowingly. "Because you think they'll send him alone again as well."

"I know they'll send him alone," Leia corrected. "Because they're preparing him. Testing him. I can feel it." Leia nodded, and Yasha gulped in apprehension. Sensing the younger woman's fear at the prospect of facing Kylo Ren - of facing Ben Solo without anyone else on her side - Leia reached out and gave Yasha's shoulder a gentle squeeze. She wished she could have offered some kind of reassurance, but she had none - none that Yasha would likely believe, anyway.

There were very few possible scenarios, and most ended in one of them destroying the other. But there was a glimmer of hope that seeing Yasha, even in the context of battle, would bring to life something in Kylo Ren that had long lay in hiding - and General Leia Organa admitted to herself that there was a small amount of selfishness in this request. It was why she had not disclosed her intention to send Yasha to Tatooine alone.

"I just need to ask you," Leia stated, "to be true to your training as a Jedi. Be the better warrior. If you have the opportunity -"

"Let him live," Yasha finished. "I understand."

"Good," Leia said with a weak smile before standing up and making back towards the door. However, before exiting, she paused and spoke again before opening the door. "I know you won't be able to bring him back home to me. Not this time," she said quietly, remembering the last time she requested anyone to bring her son homee. "But I hope that... if there's any sign of my Ben left, you'll tell me so."

"Consider it done, General," Yasha replied quietly, staring after the the woman. Leia nodded, almost imperceptibly, and took her leave.

* * *

 _A/N's_

 _A little Finn/Rey for you in this chapter! I also have a pretty extensive Kylo/Yasha flashback coming up in the next chapter, but I want to thank **Awakening5** especially for helping keep me on track with the bigger story I have planned with the characters we met in TFA. So, that's why this chapter was posted first! But never fear, the flashback is coming as well, as it has some helpful background as we move forward. Also... keep an eye on Poe Dameron. This was a quick appearance, but he's going to be a big player in things in the future. I have a few chapters written, so I foresee a great deal of ordering and editing in the next few days... paired with getting back to work after the holidays and starting class again. So, if updates slow down a little, please don't hate me!  
_

 _I did also want to address the multiple guest reviews I've received saying that I must a "troll" because I have a Kylo/OC fic that is not being attacked. That is one hundred percent untrue, I am not trolling anyone and am just trying to write a story that others will enjoy. There are also plenty of other stories not being attacked or posted about. So please, let's just focus on the stories and have fun. I really don't want to be involved in this, so this is the first and last time I'm going to address it, so we can get back to our regularly scheduled programming.  
_

 _Anyway! Thank you for all of your support! Until next update, cheers!_


	7. Interlude: Jedi In Training

_**Seventeen Years Prior...**_

* * *

The farm girl was a nuisance of the worst kind, fifteen-year-old Ben Solo decided. The fact that remained that the farm girl was also his good friend on his better days, but such truths were conveniently compartmentalized and tucked away on days such as these. It was extremely late - or perhaps incredibly early, it really didn't matter which - when Ben made up his mind and began striding down to Yasha's sleeping quarters with two wooden training swords in hand.

He hadn't foreseen the day going so poorly when it had started - admittedly, his favorite days were those allotted to training in swordplay. And moreover, he had always been the best at it. Master Skywalker always gave him the same lecture - that he needed more control, that control and discipline, not sheer strength, were the mark of a true Jedi. But he always won, Ben reminded himself. Surely that counted for something. More than something. Winning counted as _everything_.

On this day in particular, because rumors had been going around that soon, the best students selected by Master Skywalker would be the first to receive lightsabers when they were deemed ready, Ben quickly volunteered to spar with someone and grinned as he was handed a training sword. However, his grin shifted into an expression of skepticism when, after a moment's pause, Master Skywalker selected his opponent: Yasha Faygill.

And to make matters worse, the farm girl had _won_. She had won by a small margin, but won nonetheless. Master Skywalker proceeded to give all of the apprentices and younglings a long talk on control, on discipline and practice, though for Ben Solo it went in one ear and out the other while he seethed in anger. It was a fluke, he was sure. A farm girl who had only been here a matter of months could never best him legitimately - even if he knew that she spent nearly every waking moment following her prescribed training regimens of studying, meditating, and practicing.

She had humiliated him, and whether or not he considered her a friend of any sort, that needed to be remedied. That was why Ben Solo was standing outside the door to her sleeping quarters. He hit the door a few times with the end of the training swords and waited impatiently until a bleary-eyed Yasha opened the door, looking at him in confusion.

"Ben?" she asked, her face wrinkling in confusion, her hair tousled and sticking up slightly on one side where she had been laying on it. She rubbed her eyes as though she thought maybe she were still asleep and seeing things. "What are you -"

"Come with me," he said, reaching out and grabbing a hold of the crook of her arm - though even to his own surprise, he didn't feel compelled to necessarily be violent or rough with her at this point in time. He certainly wasn't going to drag her out to the training fields, because if he injured her arm, he couldn't beat her fair and square. After a few confused steps, Yasha began following despite the fact that she hardly even looked awake at all. It was only when they made it outside into the cold air that she felt her alertness rise. "We're not finished yet," Ben said crossly, tossing a training sword in Yasha's direction, which she managed to catch in one hand.

"Are you serious, Ben?" she asked, her lip curling into a slight sneer of annoyance. "Everyone's asleep -"

"I said we're not finished yet!" Ben practically roared, causing Yasha to flinch and instinctively take a fighting stance. Seeing her prepare to face him, his mouth curled into a grin before he lunged at her, taking a furious swipe.

He had expected this time to be able to overtake her by sheer force and speed - if he came at her fast and hard enough, surely she wouldn't be able to block every blow, he assured himself. But the loud clacking sound every time their weapons met in a rapid rhythm was sign enough that she was blocking him every time. Her face was creased in intense concentration - just the sight, Ben realized, agitated him to no end. He began lunging at her faster, taking wider swings.

And then he realized what he had that she didn't.

His expression gave way to a sly smirk as he leapt backward, placing a safe distance between himself and Yasha before extending his hand in her direction. In an instant, her movements halted - she was frozen in place.

"That's cheating!" Yasha protested through gritted teeth, straining to move but failing. Ben merely chuckled mischievously as he came forward a few paces, using the end of his own weapon to knock Yasha's out of her hand. "This isn't fair -"

"But I've won, haven't I?" Ben smirked, leaning close to Yasha's face and slowly waving his weapon in front of her face, taunting her. "Just say I've won, farm girl." Yasha's eyes glinted in anger, at which Ben only laughed again. "Say I've won and I'll let you go."

Yasha's eyes, narrowed in anger, were focused on Ben - but after a few moments' pause, she conceded. "You win," she stated, though there was no peace in her voice. Ben Solo, however, seemed appeased by her surrender and grinned again, making a dismissive gesture with his hand so that his control over Yasha was released and she fell to her knees on the ground. Once she was released, she looked up at Ben and added. "It's a shame you couldn't do it without cheating."

As though she had again turned on the switch to his rage, making him forget the previous few moments of triumph, he lunged at her again - Yasha only barely rolled out of the way in time to scoop up her own training sword and block another blow. From the corner of her eye, she saw his free hand move and realized that he was about to try the same trick again, and she acted instinctively - she swung her wooden practice sword in the direction of his unarmed hand and met it with a loud crack before he could take control of her mind again. Immediately, Ben let out a string of curses and let his weapon fall with a clatter as he was suddenly clutching his hand.

Now, Yasha dropped her own weapon as well and hurried over to him - but Ben insisted on keeping his injured hand out of her sight. "Get away from me, farm girl -"

"Let me see your damn hand, Solo," she said with slightly narrowed eyes. "I'm done fighting with you -"

"It's not over until I've won."

"Then you've won," Yasha groaned in exasperation, now sounding disinterested, no longer mischievous. "I don't care. Just show me your damned hand."

Perplexed at the concept of not caring about whether or not she had won their fight, he extended the hand in his confusion, allowing Yasha to look at it for a few moments. "Sit down," she said shortly, sitting on the ground in front of him in a relaxed half-lotus position. Still frowning deeply, Ben complied and sat lazily in front of her on the ground.

"I'm going to ask you to keep your mouth shut for a moment, little prince," she said matter-of-factly before reaching out and gently pulling his injured hand into her lap, resting it on the palm of one of her own hands. Her other hand hovered a short distance over his. Yasha shut her eyes, her breathing growing more even. For a few moments, nothing happened and Ben sneered slightly in confusion.

"What are you -"

But then, he felt it - the throbbing pain in his hand slowly dissipated into nothing, and his mouth hung slightly ajar as he looked down again. Force Healing. He hadn't known what skills she had been developing, because it hardly seemed relevant as long as she wasn't directly competing with him - and Ben's primary interest had _always_ been the powers of the mind. Slightly tired from the exertion of her energy, Yasha then opened her eyes and gave a slightly exasperated sigh. "I couldn't have you showing up to lessons tomorrow with a broken hand, or we'd both be in a bind. I'd have to tell Master Luke that you dragged me out here, and I followed," she explained. "And then neither of us is going to have a lightsaber."

"It's your fault," he said, firmly withdrawing his hand and clasping both in his own lap. "We could've been finished."

"We _were_ finished," Yasha retorted, her voice going slightly shrill. "You came at _me_ -"

"Because you said that I couldn't beat you without cheating - it's not cheating," he sneered. "Just because I use every tool at my disposal -"

"Yes, alright!" Yasha interrupted. "We can't all be as naturally gifted as you. Some of us actually need to work hard to be here. Some of us actually have something to prove."

With a huff, Yasha got to her feet and began storming away - Ben rolled his eyes and stood to follow her, again stopping her by gently tugging on the crook of her arm. "Why does is bother you so much, hm, farm girl?"

"Because the whole reason I'm here - the whole reason I left behind my life and my family is to be more than a farm girl," Yasha snapped, spinning around and looking oddly infuriated. Ben froze, nearly feeling guilty. So this, he realized, was the reason she studied so hard. He could admit that he'd assumed she simply wanted to show him up, to be better than him - but he could also accept that perhaps this was not the case. "You will never understand. Never."

She wrenched her arm away from him and began storming back to the sleeping quarters for all of the initiates, but Ben, not to be deterred, quickened his steps to catch up with her so that they were still walking side-by-side the way they did from time to time, as though nothing had just happened at all. Yasha slowed her pace but did not stop, shooting the boy next to her a sidelong glance.

"So you've been studying healing," Ben pointed out casually. "I'd been wondering. You've been secretive about it, you know."

"Yes, well, not all of us have the natural knack for mind tricks," Yasha said, rolling her eyes. Though the statement was sarcastic, Ben admittedly took a little pride in the fact that she'd admitted he had a natural gift for it. "I use the things I'm good at - and I have to be the best at them."

"Hm."

Ben paused in his tracks, gently crossing his arms and cocking his head to one side so that a tendril of his dark hair fell out of place, dropping into his face. Upon realizing that he was no longer walking alongside her, Yasha paused and turned around with a heaving sigh. "Hm?" she mimicked. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," Ben shrugged. "Just that you're very good at the things you do. You needn't get so insecure over them."

At this, a rapid blush rose into Yasha's cheeks - her eyes widened momentarily before she cleared her throat and regained her composure. "Thank you," she said in a prim voice, turning her nose up slightly. "You're very good at what you do as well."

"Of course I am," Ben smirked, earning a roll of Yasha's eyes.

"You were almost charming for a moment there, little prince," she said with a lopsided grin. "C'mon. We should get back inside before we get caught."

And as they again strode side by side back into the sleeping quarters, Yasha realized that she and Ben Solo had a very strange friendship indeed.

* * *

 _A/N_

 ** _Coming Up: Rey attempts to begin her training with Master Luke Skywalker, while Yasha walks alone into a new challenge._**

 _Thank you for all of your support, everyone! I also received an interesting idea to do a spinoff of Ben & Yasha's origin story, which sounds fun but might not be something I start just yet. I'd really like to focus on this story first, because I have some fun things planned! Until next update, cheers!_


	8. Rebuke

"This is useless..."

Rey rose to her feet from the half-lotus position she had been sitting in next to Luke Skywalker - it was hardly a decent hour of morning and the air was still damp with dew. She was doing her best not to show resistance to General Organa's order that she learn the ways of the Jedi, but her internal struggle with what she knew now of their teachings rendered the necessary reflection practically impossible. It was not a matter of whether not she believed she Force was real - without a doubt, she now realized that it was. It was a matter of whether or not she believed in these practices, in this way understanding the Force. She gave an annoyed groan as she shook out her legs, which were now stiff from having to try to meditate for nearly an hour, and scratched the back of her neck.

"You can only learn if you truly open yourself to what you're learning," Luke said, getting to his feet as well and gently smoothing out his worn out robes as though having simply been _sitting there_ for so long hadn't bothered him at all. Rey was unable to help scoffing a bit at the statement, turning back to face him.

"If you wanted me to be open to you teaching me anything," she retorted defiantly, "then maybe you shouldn't have shown me how you tried to use your mind tricks on your last student."

The words seemed to strike the aged Luke Skywalker like a physical blow, and he inhaled with a quiet his before shutting his eyes and resigning himself to the fact that perhaps it was a well-deserved barb. The final remaining Jedi Master though he was, Luke Skywalker knew that he had been far from a perfect teacher for any of his students - and he had perhaps given up on two in particular too soon, in very different ways. He nodded wordlessly and opened his eyes to look at the young woman in front of him again.

Of all the people, after all, Rey was the one he could not give up on. He owed her that much at the very least.

His peaceful, blank expression, however, only served to infuriate Rey further. She gave a disbelieving, humorless laugh, turning on her heel and walking a few paces away from the man who was supposed to be training her. Luke Skywalker was supposed to be a hero - a legend. Why, then, could she regard him with only disgust? "The only reason I'm listening to you is because General Organa ordered it. She seems to think I need your help," Rey continued, refusing to turn and face Luke. "But no one said I needed to accept it."

"The only way I can train you in the Force -"

"Maybe I don't need your training!" Rey interrupted, impassioned and red in the face when she finally managed to turn towards him, looking almost as though she were stalking, preparing to pounce - as though she had been waiting to say these words to him for a long time, without ever having met him. "I know I can use the Force on my own because I've already done it, and I know I can survive on my own because it's what I've always had to do."

Again, the words seemed to wound the older man for reasons that Rey could not, and indeed for the moment hardly cared to understand. If it was so important not to feel, and if he indeed was some kind of master at it, then it should not have affected him so.

"I know you've had to survive on your own for a very long time. And perhaps you should not have had to," Luke finally spoke up, with a vulnerability in his voice that deeply confused Rey as it departed so abruptly from his calm, placid tone. "But this is about more than surviving now, Rey. The Force is not a tool of survival. It's something far greater than that. The Force is about the fullness of existing, of the connection of between all things -"

"And you make existence full by not caring about anyone?" Rey asked, a slight frown dawning on her face, though she did manage to take a few steps back towards Luke. "You're supposed to be a master of the connection between all things by pushing them away?"

"It is not that simple, Rey," he added in the same infuriatingly calm tone. "You do not yet understand the way of -"

"Then make me understand!" Rey pleaded - a look of shock appeared on both of their faces, as it was clear there was something deeper in this plea than the mere act of a pupil questioning a teacher.

Luke took a step backward, and strangely held a hand over his chest, shaking his head tiredly - this was the first moment where Rey looked at the man and truly saw that he was aged and exhausted by the battles that life had brought him through. And he did something that Rey found unsettling - he shook his head and gave a quiet, sad laugh. There was no fight left in him, and he made no effort to defend himself.

"All of these things you're telling me, I thought myself once," he said, looking down in what looked like shame. "All of it, I tried to keep in mind when I founded the new Order of Jedi Knights. I tried to rewrite the old Jedi Code. There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is -"

"-no passion," Rey picked up, remembering the words from what felt like a memory that had long been dead. The look of surprise on her face that she could remember such things was matched only by the expression on Luke's face as well. "There is serenity. There is not chaos, there is harmony. There is no death, there is the Force..."

A silence settled between the pair, and the glance they shared was one laced with electricity. Rey inhaled sharply, staring intently at the man before him. Had he implanted the words in her mind? How did she know them?

"In the beginning, I tried," Luke said with the utmost honest, a sadness and a weariness now filling his eyes. "I tried to change the Jedi Code. I tried to change the loneliness and the isolation... I understood all of these things once," he nodded. "But, you see... I was just a farm boy from Tatooine. And then, to suddenly be charged with rebuilding the Jedi Order? Who was I to change what had maintained the balance in the universe for centuries before me?" he asked, shaking his head. "I had become the Grand Master of a grand brotherhood that I realized I knew very little about."

"So you were afraid," Rey asked, her frown deepening. The disappointment seemed to simply build and build, the more she learned about the man who, a matter of weeks ago, was a story. A legend. "And you fell back on old ways so that if you failed, it was not your own failure - so you could have someone to blame."

"Perhaps," Luke nodded. "Perhaps that is true. If it is... I was not fit to teach an entire generation of new Knights. And I am not yet fit to teach you."

And in a slow swish of robes, he strode past her, back inside the Resistance compound. Now, left alone in the cool, damp morning, Rey began to piece together the implications of the catharsis she had forced upon the old man. She had pushed him this far, and she had shattered his confidence as her teacher. Perhaps, Rey realized with a small pang of regret, a small part of her had done so on purpose. But had he really just done what he had? Had the legendary Luke Skywalker really just walked away from his duty again?

She felt an inexplicable anger towards him, an anger that came from a source she could not identify. But when the anger subsided, when he was finally out of sight, Rey was forced to acknowledge the new hurdle that presented itself. If he would not teach her the ways of the Jedi, if he was no longer willing to teach her how to harness the power of the Force... who else could?

There were few people in the entire galaxy apart from Luke Skywalker with any skill or training in use of the Force. One wanted them dead. The other, though Rey was not aware, was fulfilling a mission on a farther corner of their star system, alone.

* * *

Tatooine was, for the most part, a defunct planet abandoned for greener pastures both literally and figuratively in recent decades as resources were run down to practically nothing. The descent down into the old mining tunnels, just below the desolate desert surface of the planet, took on an eerie feeling. While as a child, Yasha had never traveled from Lothal, she had heard many things about Tatooine - she remembered her father and the other miners being sent as contractors to pull precious minerals from the planet's thick, rocky mantle. Yasha imagined how the planet had once been alive, how the few villages and bunkers and shelters that dotted the desert had once been bustling with life and motion. How strange it was, Yasha thought to herself, that things which were once alive and vibrant were now dead and nothing but dust. But this was now true of many things.

Down in the dark tunnels, the way illuminated only by the blue glow from the wrist device that projected a dated map of the mines, Yasha realized that this was the feeling of being really and truly alone.

Strangely enough, being alone was not something common to pupils of the Jedi Order. Perhaps life was lived without emotional connection, without worldly bonds - but the Jedi Way was at the same time built upon a sense of interconnectedness, a sense of being wholly and equally connected to all walks of life. That, Yasha had always been taught, was the true nature of The Force. It connected all things, coursed through all things. It was inescapable and indestructible.

Here in the dark, however, Yasha felt connected to nothing. The Force was the connection forged between all walks of life, but in the dark, there was no life to be found. Surprisingly, the loss of the sense of connection to the Force - to the entirety of the universe - was not frightening, but in fact relieving. She could stay here. She considered the possibility quite seriously. She was no Jedi, after all, and she wasn't much of anything else either. She had finished nothing that she'd ever started, and it haunted her. Perhaps here, alone on an almost abandoned planet, she could find peace.

The possibility of peace, however, was disrupted by the sound of footsteps, slow and menacing. The sound was distant, but Yasha knew that she, the source of the only light in the darkness, had already been spotted. She turned around and simply listened to the footsteps as they drew nearer, battle-weary but resigned to the need to fight yet again. Slowly, the steps became louder and louder until the blue-tinged light of the projected map glinted against the dark metal surface of a familiar mask.

"There is no one to stop us this time," the modulated voice said in a low tone that, if not for the complete silence in the tunnel, would have been inaudible. The familiar red glow of his crossguard lightsaber illuminated the darkness around him. Strangely, in this, Yasha found a sense of acceptance - a sense of peace - and took up her own weapon. This, she understood. This, she could face. The bright green light came alive with a low 'zing' as a vague smile played at her lips.

"Indeed," she answered. "We've always fought our best this way."

* * *

 _A/N_

 _First of all, thank you for getting this story to over 100 follows! So crazy! I hope I'm living up to your expectations and providing you with some good entertainment when I update. I appreciate all of your feedback, your reviews definitely help me out a ton! I'm working on getting the next chapter edited and structured the way I want it, but I'm also starting class again, so update might be somewhat slower. I promise to do my best to make the updates worth whatever the wait may be! Until next time, cheers!_

 _ **Next Time: A confrontation and a desert storm.**_


	9. Rescue

_"There is no one to stop us this time."_

 _"Indeed. We've always fought our best this way."_

And in the next instant, there in the dark, crimson met green with a familiar zinging noise, accompanied by the hissing and crackling of Kylo's lightsaber, volatile and overflowing with unharnessed energy. The slim green blade of Yasha's saber, on the other wand, was meticulous, clean, and restrained. Just like her.

In the fight that followed, Kylo Ren cursed what he felt was his own weakness - every time he came close to overpowering the woman he was fighting, one of his old injuries began to cave in fatigue and gave her a chance to regain her bearings. At his full strength, he knew this battle would have been over easily.

He easily could have used the Force to defeat her as well, but his last encounter with Yasha had made him privy to an insight he previously had not considered: it was not enough to simply defeat her physically. In order to rid himself of the turmoil he felt when he saw her - the torturous sensation that searing and writhed like a wildfire in his deepest parts - he had to best her in every way. It was the only way, he had come to truly believe, that he could be rid of Ben Solo entirely.

Beneath his mask, Kylo Ren's teeth bared into an almost feral grin when he realized that he had her on the defensive - he had the upper hand. His elation, however, waned when he noticed that their fight did not have her undivided attention. He saw the way her dark eyes flitted every few moments to the projected map that still emanated from the device around her wrist. She was only fighting to distract him - Yasha Faygill had not come for him. She had come for the Marelignium.

Infuriated at the insult against his prowess, he let out a sound like a roar and again descended into a rage, swinging his weapon almost blindly and continuing to force Yasha backwards through the darkness. But this, he realized in a brief, flickering moment of clarity, was an opportunity as well. Quickly following the woman's lead and darting his gaze to the map, he was able to determine the direction she was heading in. The next time their weapons met in a deadlock, he gave a shove just hard enough to throw her off balance and knock her aside - a loud hiss indicated that in the process, the sleeve of her tunic was singed as she fell away. Kylo then bolted off down the tunnel, leaving her behind.

He gave a sneer of a grin as he heard the shuffle of Yasha scrambling to her feet and darting to catch up with him - he had always been faster. Kylo's longer limbs carried him in bounds down the tunnel until he reached a dead end- and a place of inexplicable heat emanating from the walls. The Marelignium was still encased somewhere inside. Up above was a hole that led back to the surface, attached to makeshift ladder made from chain that did not even extend the entire way down.  
Whoever had been here last had come so close to the prize, only to have found themselves incapable of finishing the task. Kylo Ren's eyes narrowed. He would not allow himself to suffer the same misfortune. Drawing his lightsaber again, he began swinging indiscriminately at the stone wall before him. His lightsaber hissed and sparked, almost as though growing more angry along with him, making only small dings in the rock around him. The Marelignium was here, and it was his mission to retrieve it.

Within moments, however, the duplication of the sound behind him in a different pace signalled him that Yasha had caught up and had started to follow his lead in a different part of the tunnel. He was torn between finishing his mission, or finishing their battle - but succumbing to the desire to defeat her would be weakness. He continued swiping away at the solid rock, only barely burning scars into the solid stone. He roared aloud again, swinging away furiously so that the sounds of both his and Yasha's weapons echoed on the walls. Perhaps it would take hours. Perhaps their arms would give out long before they found it... but it would be found somehow.

There was something almost meditative about the process that each of them pursued in silence, almost forgetting one another's presence. Kylo Ren had found himself so deeply buried in his task that he was actually taken aback by being yanked backwards by his cloak, pulled the ground. Enraged, he whirled to turn his weapon on Yasha until the loud rumble of crumbling stone overrode his intentions - the wall he had been attacking had, because of the overwhelming din, crumbled slightly and would have fallen on top of him, had Yasha not intervened. And yet, she merely turned away and continued on her own assault.

As the dust settled, however, the cave was filled again with a dim amber glow. Quickly, both Kylo and Yasha turned to look for the source of the light and saw in the debris a fist-sized glowing stone. Though momentarily immobilized at the sight, knowing that it was Marelignium, the pair immediately made a mad dash for it. Again, however, Kylo Ren was faster as he had always been. He let out a victorious cry when his fist closed around the stone. Enraptured at the sight, he held it up to gaze at it, only have the beautiful amber glow disrupted by a flash of green - Yasha's saber sliced through the stone so that half of it fell to the ground with a clatter, and she dove down to retrieve the severed half.

He could have struck her down - he could have done it easily. But Yasha Faygill was different, and different because of what she had been to Ben Solo. He knew that in order to purge her from his mind, to rid himself of the almost sickening ache he felt when he looked at her, he needed to defeat her at her best. He needed to best her when she was wholly dedicated to defeating him, and then he would be free of her.

And he relished the expression of shock on her face when in a few mighty movements, he tucked away his own shard of Marelignium and threw his lightsaber upward so that it landed outside of the opening in the cave ceiling. He lept upward to grab a hold of the bottom of the chain that led to the surface and pulled himself up, disappearing on the surface.

The result left Yasha in a momentary bind - should she go back down the tunnel the way she had come, or exit in the same direction for the chance of stopping Kylo Ren from keeping the Marelignium he was able to gather. The latter quickly won out. She made her way to the surface and found that he had been standing with his weapon at the ready, waiting for her.

Coming after him had been an invitation, and he wasted no time in lunging for her with a furious swipe of his lightsaber, giving her only moments to roll away and engage her own weapon.

But it had been a long time since Yasha Faygill had fought so hard for so long - the years spent with Master Skywalker on the island were not spent actively training anymore, and quickly, she felt her arms beginning to grow tired. She continued furiously parrying whatever blows she could, but found herself quickly on the defensive. And then, wish a fast movement of the cape-like end of his topcoat, he hurled a rush of sand from the ground into her face. Yasha let out an agonized, guttural cry at the feel of the hot sand against her skin and in her eyes - she dropped her weapon, and heard it being kicked away, skidding over the sand as she fell to the ground in defeat.

"I knew you would lose eventually," Kylo Ren spoke finally, removing his mask so he could lock eyes with her properly. "You forget. I use every tool at my disposal." He leveled his weapon so that it was pointed directly at the center of her chest. "The stone, Faygill. I'll be needing it from you."

She looked up at him, defiant as ever as her hand slowly withdraw the shard of Marelignium from the pouch in her clothing. Yasha cast it aside in acknowledgment of her defeat, and her eyes dared him to finish it, to kill her. Upon seeing the expression on her face, Kylo smirked and, to her surprise, powered down his weapon. He stood over her ominously for a few moments before kneeling next to her, shoving his face uncomfortably close to hers.

"This is how I will best you, Yasha Faygill," he sneered. "I will be the better Jedi. I will let you live."

But why, then, when he had gained the upper hand and shown her mercy did she begin to smirk back at him as though she knew something that he did not? There was no fear in her face, there were no fearful shuddering breaths from their closeness. Yasha Faygill was still even-keeled as ever, unwavering - the small puffs of warm breath from her slightly parted lips, too, were disciplined as though she were still meditating. The look on her face was disgusting. Infuriating. Once, many years ago, it would have driven him absolutely mad in a far different way.

"Get up," he sneered, taking a step away from her. His hand, after forcefully fitting his lightsaber back into its holster, unconsciously drifted to his side, which admittedly throbbed and ached, especially after such fervent exertion. Yasha complied, though her eyes narrowed suspiciously. However, before she could speak, whatever she had meant to say, the loud sound of simultaneous rumbling and whistling overtook the air.

A Tatooine sandstorm was the last thing that could possibly help the situation, and was exactly what appeared seemingly out of nowhere on the horizon. It was a rumbling stampede of sand and wind and heat that grew louder and larger by the second. Forgetting completely the fact that the prize for which she had come to the planet at all - the Marelignium sample - was now in Kylo Ren's possession, Yasha scrambled for ther weapon first, and tore off in the other direction in attempts of creating distance between herself and the storm. Up ahead, she saw a small shanty. It was shelter, and she needed desperately to reach it.

It felt as though an unseen hand, however, pulled her thoughts back to what she was running from - she turned her head to look back as she continued to run and saw that Kylo Ren had taken a knee, using his cape to shield himself. It would last, but not for long. Yasha could hear the storm in the distance and knew that soon it would be carrying more than just sand, and Kylo was already weakened.

And she could have left him. She could have left him and considered it a victory - but his words from moments earlier lingered in her mind. Kylo Ren believed that he was now more knowing in the Jedi Way because he had let her live - that he had fulfilled his goal of besting her.

She had to prove him wrong, even if it was for only one last time. Whatever the consequence, Yasha was determined this time to show him mercy.

Yasha quickly turned back, crouched low as she ran back in the direction of the storm until she reached him, undoing the fastenings of topcoat to clumsily shove it off his shoulders then reaching down, yanking away the helmet he held close to himself as though protecting it.

" _Leave me_ -"

"Non-negotiable, Commander," Yasha said through gritted teeth, stiffening against the harsh hot winds. She forcefully grabbed a fistful of his clothing and yanked him to his feet, beginning to run before there was the opportunity to protest further.

She could hardly keep her eyes open even a sliver against the blistering wind and sand - Yasha let out a small hiss of pain when she felt a small stone dash across the side of her face, but did not stop.

It was not until they had both stumbled inside of the abandoned shanty that she was able to draw a breath that did not burn her lungs. Kylo remained on the ground, still relegated to one knee as he clutched his torso in pain. Yasha then glimpsed the faint discoloration, even on the black fabric of his clothing, of blood leaking through from an old wound that had unknitted itself in their struggle. He looked up and attempted to sneer, almost moved his lips to say something, until he finally succumbed and slumped into exhausted unconsciousness.

* * *

 _A/N's_

 _As always, you guys are the best. Keeping notes short and sweet so I can work on the next update while juggling work and class. Your feedback is always valued and appreciated! Until next time, cheers!_

 ** _Next Time: Master Skywalker reflects in solitude. Kylo Ren and Yasha declare a temporary ceasefire in the face of the storm._**


	10. Refusal

D'Qar might have, in a time of the utmost peace, even been seen as a beautiful planet with its vast variety of terrain. There were vast green clearings, lush forests, rivers, lakes, and finally, make rocky caves and chasms.

It was in one of these cold, quiet caves that Luke Skywalker found himself after unsuccessfully trying to find his way as Rey's teacher and mentor. He couldn't have continued to face her in that moment in any case, not when she had done more in the way of teaching than he had.

He had hidden himself away in this cave out of shame - because he could not face anyone in the light of his inadequacy but at the same time was unwilling to add to his failures by again abandoning those who counted him in their hour of need. Perhaps here in the dark, far from everyone and having given the direction not to be followed, he could again remember the true nature of the Force. He had lost sight of it long ago in his own self-loathing. But perhaps now he was needed again - even in light of all things, this gave him some small glimmer of help. But first, he needed to find himself worthy to again serve those who he had worst failed.

Luke Skywalker had wanted nothing more and nothing less than to be enough for his students - to guide them in their journeys as others had done before him. He had once been so immensely proud of his two strongest students. Now, neither of them were the Jedi Knights he had wished them to be. But even worse, there was one person who he had failed even more sorely, and someone who, by the course of the events of recent days, he still continued to fail. He needed to rediscover himself - though he no longer knew how, because his years of solitude had not fulfilled that purpose.

Meanwhile, disappointed and disillusioned, Rey had wandered off in another direction in the woods. She too felt clearer when she was alone. She had, after all, been alone for so much of her life up until recent weeks, and even if she highly valued the new people that had come into her life since then, there was a considerable part of her that still valued the peace that was to be found in solitude.

A small part of her also admittedly missed Jakku - not the nights spent with an empty stomach, or the long hikes through hot desert, but certainly the familiarity. A small part of her missed the daily fight to survive, because it was purposeful and somehow always attainable. Their goals here on D'Qar on the other hand were rarely quite as clear.

"Rey!" a familiar voice came from back in the direction of the base, accompanied by the sound of footsteps and snapping twigs. "Hey! Been looking for you."

Rey chuckled slightly at the sight of Finn jogging in her direction with what looked like a steaming bread roll in his hand, which he held out to her once he had caught up. "Didn't see you in the dining hall today, so I didn't want you to miss out on them while they were fresh," he said with a lopsided grin as Rey accepted the offer, taking the roll and biting into it eagerly. She hadn't even realized that she was quite so hungry. At the sight of her eating without so much as a hesitation, Finn gave a lopsided grin, crossing his arms over himself.

"The General said you were out training with Skywalker today," he said, but was quickly surprised by the exasperated roll of Rey's eyes that followed. "Guessin' it didn't go well?"

"It didn't go at all," Rey said, raising her eyebrows as she spoke. "All he tried to do was have me sit with my eyes closed and... and feel the Force. It was a waste of time," she said with a breathy, humorless laugh as she tromped ahead a few steps on the forest path. "It's ridiculous, all of it. Maybe there's a good reason why the Jedi are gone."

"I think you need to give the guy a fair shot first," Finn spoke up hesitantly, following a few steps behind while Rey made her way farther into the wood. "He could surprise you -"

"He already has," Rey retorted, not turning back to face Finn as she continued onward. "And not pleasantly."

Grateful that Rey wasn't facing him, Finn couldn't help but roll his eyes and shake his head a little at her obstinance. There were times where he thought that he had come to be normal, despite a lifetime of hard wiring. Certainly, he felt accepted here - never as though he were some kind of threat, or some kind of machine. But, especially when it came to Rey, there were times that he could make neither heads nor tails of what was going through his head. He was a Stormtrooper by training - he wasn't trained in understanding people this way. He certainly wasn't trained in understanding women.

* * *

 _ **Meanwhile, on Tatooine...**_

* * *

The first sense that seemed to wake up in Kylo Ren was his sense of hearing - the roar of wind and the occasional thud of debris hitting wood and metal immediately ignited his awareness that indeed, the sandstorm was still roaring onward in full force - rumor had it that on Tatooine, sandstorms could last for days without so much as relenting.

The next sense was touch. He first noticed that he was not being bombarded by the storm. He was still in some kind of shelter. A new sensation now, however, invaded this sense in particular, with something tight and unfamiliar wrapped around his waist.

Finally, sight. He forced his eyes open to glance at his surroundings and realized that he was lying on a crate inside the old desert shanty that appeared to have been once used to store supplies, and sitting asleep on the floor in the opposite corner was Yasha Faygill. A quick glance over her now bare arms and the tattered margins elsewhere on her clothing led his to look downward and reassess himself as well. She had removed his shirt, and torn off her sleeves to use as bandages around his waist. And then, he remembered the excruciating pain of when he had last been conscious - the considerable wound in his side, which had never fully healed to begin with, had begun again to bleed after their battle. Another glance around. Both his and her lightsabers sat side-by-side on the nearby table, as well as both shards of Marelignium.

She could have killed him and taken the prize for herself, and she did not.

Oddly enough, this realization ignited anger in Kylo Ren - his hands no longer gloved, balled into fists at his sides. First, he was enraged that again, Yasha's mercy had outweighed his. Again, she was the better Jedi.

It was not that he still had aspirations of being a Jedi. Certainly not. He had shed those aspirations when he had shed that horror of a name he had been born with. But the fact remained that the knowledge of never having bested Yasha in the knowledge and the art was an anchor that tied him to his prior life, kept him from fulfilling the grand plans that the Supreme Leader had for him. He had long felt the call of the Light and attempted only to drown it out. It had never worked. But if he could instead harness and defeat it, then he could be what the the Supreme Leader had promised. He could be a master of all aspects of the Force.

He could kill her. But it would not be enough, because it would come with the knowledge that even in death, she was a better student of the Light. That, he could not allow. So, it would not be enough to merely destroy her without truly, at her best defeating her. Killing a sleeping maiden was not power in the same way that killing a formidable warrior was. Kylo Ren would need to bide his time in order to purge himself of Yasha Faygill.

His anger also billowed from the knowledge of his own vulnerability. The fact that she had helped him, had tended to his wounds, was evidence that she felt he needed help at all, and such a circumstance was not acceptable, Kylo Ren reflected, unconsciously banging his fist against the crate he was lying on. His vulnerability when it came to this woman was unparalleled - because he had not found a source of anger to harbor towards her, and therefore had no source of power against her. Against his father, his mother, against Master Skywalker, he could level a great deal of accusations, and find a great deal many weaknesses. In his old life, under his old guise as Ben Solo, they had all in his mind wronged him and as such deserved whatever suffering delivered to them by Fate.

He remembered, for a flicker of a second, the expression on the legendary Han Solo's face as the searing blade of the crimson lightsaber pierced his chest. The appearance of light draining from the old man's eyes, the insistence to the end of showing love and mercy for his son, was another reason why Kylo Ren knew that simply killing the woman would not purge him of her. The image of his father remained with him in the recesses of his mind. The image of Yasha Faygill would only do the same.

The loud thud of his fist against the old wooden crate, however, seemed to have been enough to gain the woman's attention, even in her sleep. Yasha's eyes smoothly opened, and she rolled her shoulders and neck once before finally looking up to see that Kylo was awake as well, staring at her with both rage and confusion distorting his features.

The only reaction either could manage was silence, staring at one another with intensity and determination. Both knew and felt what the other was attempting, because they were doing the same.

"You're keeping me out," Kylo said in a near-snarl, tapping his finger to his temple and disclosing that he had in fact been attempting to get into her mind, the way he easily did with many others. "You've improved."

"I've had quite a bit of time," Yasha replied sternly. Indeed, she'd quite a few years hidden away on an island with very little else to do. She, too, attempted to get into his mind, only to find herself turned away at the gates. For the moment, they were deadlocked, both attempting to scale the walls of each other's minds, and neither opening the way. "You know that if we keep this up, no one's ever going to know we're here."

"I presume you're aware that sandstorms don't last forever."

Something behind the caustic tone in his voice carried such familiarity that Yasha went rigid upon hearing the short statement - something in his voice sounded too painfully similar to someone she knew to be gone. Shuddering slightly, she got to her feet so she wasn't left in such a vulnerable position, and was instead standing with her bare arms crossed over her torso. It was in this shift of position that Kylo Ren noticed one particular detail.

Yasha Faygill wore her hair cropped close to chin length, doing very little to tame the deep brown waves. She'd worn it this way for years. He saw, however, that the single adornment she had ever worn remained the same - a thin tendril near the nape of her neck left long and braided with red cord. His jaw clenched slightly at the sight of it. Suddenly aware of where his gaze had drifted, Yasha quickly reached up and tucked the small strand away so that it was for the most part hidden behind her neck.

"Your sentimentality is what makes you weak," he said with a blank stare, though his upper lip threatened to curl. "You keep the mark of a promise you made to a boy who has long been dead?"

"I'm no longer the girl who made that promise either," Yasha said, her expression going flat in a way that was uncomfortably similar to the blank, placid expression of a Jedi that they had both learned together, many years ago. "I need to remember _that_ more than I need to remember _him_."

* * *

 _A/N's_

 _Holy smokes, the support that's popped up since the last update has been great. Thank you, everyone! As always, I love and appreciate your feedback, and definitely take it into consideration as the story moves forward. Until next time, cheers!_

 ** _Next Time: On D'Qar, the Resistance begins to show signs of restlessness as Finn becomes further involved in the ranks. General Organa seeks to bring her brother closer to the truth. On Tatooine, the unrelenting storm begins to take its toll._**


	11. Restoration

_**On D'Qar**_

* * *

"Get the man some grog, wouldja?" Poe Dameron called out as he led Finn into the dimly lit hangar, calling out to the rest of his pilots who were seated in various spots around the hangar with tankards and flasks in hand to take the edge off of a day of particularly rough training weather. So this, Finn thought to himself as he glanced around the room, was what Resistance Pilots did on their time off.

Even the concept of time off seemed foreign to him. However, he managed a half-grin in spite of how out of place he felt, graciously accepting when a tankard was pushed into his hands by another pilot.

The warm welcome from the others was confusing to Finn - but a good kind of confusing, unlike what he felt around certain others. He took a seat between Poe and another one of his pilots who introduced himself as Onda Nakka. Onda seemed a bit younger than Poe and the others, perhaps closer to Finn's age, and clanked his flask against Finn's tankard in greeting.

"Good of you to come out and spend time with us little folk, hero," Onda smirked good-naturedly, though even the joke made Finn squirm slightly. It was wholly unfamiliar to be thanked or to be thought of as important... yet here he was. In the Resistance, they trusted him. In the Resistance, they valued him. "What brings you our way?"

"I brought him out," Poe said, taking a hearty gulp from his own drink. "Thought he could use a little unwinding. Been a little twisted up over a certain girl - go on, Finn. Tell 'em!"

Tell them? Finn thought, looking over at Poe with comically raised eyebrows. He was supposed to just tell them? Had he gone crazy?

But this was Poe Dameron, Finn reasoned internally. Poe hadn't led him astray before, after all, so it could clearly do no harm.

"It's that Rey girl, isn't it?" Onda asked with a grin before Finn could ever complete his internal debate with himself. "Called it. You don't take a lightsaber to the back for just about anybody -"

"Knowin' you, you'd never take a lightsaber to the back period," Poe jeered jokingly, to which Onda responded, also jokingly, with a pointedly crude gesture of his hand. This, Finn noted to himself, was going to take some getting used to.

"Yeah," Finn confirmed, taking some more of his drink in hopes that it would lower his inhibitions just as it was doing for the others. "It's Rey. I mean, its dumb - she's got the Fate of the whole galaxy on her shoulders or something and she's doing all this mumbo jumbo with the Force that honestly, I don't get," he rambled, shrugging his shoulders honestly. "And I'm pretty sure I'm never gonna get it."

"But you've got a thing for her anyway," Poe prodded, leaning his elbows onto his knees so he could lean closer to Finn. He paused, pensive for a moment, before chuckling and shaking his head slowly. "Welcome to being a real human being, Finnie. Sometimes, the timing is just bullshit."

When Finn managed only to frown in response rather than actually speak, Poe chuckled, slinging an arm around the younger man's shoulders. "I know you were expectin' a little more wisdom from us kid, but that's the honest to goodness truth. Sometimes you fall for somebody when they can't even give you the time of day -"

"Hold on," Onda chuckled, reaching over and grabbing his helmet, out of nowhere putting it down on Finn's head with a grin. "There. Problem solved. Nobody turns down a pilot, it's basically illegal."

"C'mon, Onda, the kid's serious here -"

"And so am I," Onda laughed incredulously, giving his drink a brief shake in his slightly inebriated enthusiasm. "He's new around here, he hasn't heard the stories. Even that Skywalker couldn't say no to a little tail from a top notch pilot -"

"Onda," Poe said, his jaw clenching uncomfortably, raising his eyebrows and signalling for the younger man to stop. "Unless you wanna be stuck on cleanin' duty for a month, you cut that out."

"Oh, c'mon, Poe! You say it yourself all the damn time, Commander Anissa taught you everything you knew -"

"She did, and I have too much respect for her to talk about that," Poe said, his frown deepening. The joyous air to the gathering of the pilots dissipated into uncomfortable silence, and it almost seemed to be forgotten that this had all started as a conversation about Finn's lack of insight into his own lovelife. "Commander Anissa put the New Republic and the Resistance before everything and paid for it with her life, so if you're gonna run your mouth about the person I respect most out of anyone?" Poe asked, his voice taking on a sharp, angry edge. "You're not going to do it on any of my squadrons, you got it, Nakka?"

"Yeah. Commander," Onda said, biting back a sneer. "Just thought we were havin' some fun."

Finn, for the life of him, couldn't overcome the feeling that he was the only person in the room not in on some kind of inside joke. Even as the casual festivities slowly resumed and people went back to their drinks, the curiosity of who Commander Anissa was and what she had to do with Luke Skywalker.

Sensing that the younger man was now distracted from what had been intended to be a night away from the gravity of recent occurences, Poe gestured for Finn to follow him and they stepped aside to a farther corner of the hangar. "Just so you now," Poe said in a low voice. "I'm not tryin' to keep anythin' from you, Finn. You and me are brothers. Just don't want to dredge up old issues if I don't have to."

"About Luke Skywalker?"

"Yeah," Poe nodded, scratching the back of his neck in slightly discomfort. "Look, between you and me - pilots have a different opinion of Mister Big Jedi Hero than most people do, and anyone whose been around a while isn't exactly pissing their pants in excitement to see him back."

"How come?"

Poe inhaled so heavily that his nostrils flaed slightly, and he shook his head wearily before leveling his gaze with Finn's. "Probably best for you not to know right now. Somethin' that needs to stay in the hangar until the right time. But I wanna make sure to plant the seed that you don't need to take everything a Jedi Master says as gospel - I think Rey's got the right idea to second-guess him. We all know he screwed up and he's only here because he's the general's brother."

The dissent that lay beneath Poe's words made Finn uneasy. He had just gotten here, he had just started to feel like truly part of something rather than being an underling or a pawn, and it felt far too soon for things to fall apart this way. It wasn't that hearing ill of Luke Skywalker was new in any way - but it was something he hadn't expected to hear again. Things were far from simple on the other side, Finn realized a little more every day.

* * *

General Leia Organa could never have said that she was particularly fond of hiking; it merely became a necessity once in a while. Now, walking through the woods on the edge of the D'Qar base camp, happened to be one of those times. Night had already fallen, and she had felt her brother's absence from the camp for the entire day. As such, she had used her limited ability to track him down.

It was fortunate at least, she decided, that he had stayed on the same planet this time. Leia had gathered from Rey's surly demeanor upon returning to camp that morning that training had not been going well, and she knew that this would not be an obstacle that Luke would take lightly. Jedi Master or not, on the inside he was still very much the same person he'd been in his youth - still struggled with the same demons, still possessed the same fear of failure. Leia continually reminded herself of these things as she made her way over the slick, mossy rocks at the mouth of the cave where she knew Luke to be.

And there he sat in a small spot, seated in the center of a small stream of moonlight that streamed in from a crack in the ceiling. Leia sighed as she approached, standing a few yards behind her twin brother.

"If you would just tell her -"

"Her mother wouldn't want her to know -"

"What do you know about what she wanted?" Leia asked, her voice suddenly sharp and accusatory. "Commander Anissa was my best pilot. One of my closest confidants. You know what you did, Luke - she felt something for you and you walked away."

"Because I was doing what a Jedi must," Luke replied, finally turning to face his sister and getting to his feet, facing his sister alone for the first time and truly speaking with her as Luke rather than Master Skywalker. "I couldn't have trained a whole generation of Jedi if I didn't practice what I preached -"

"Then maybe you were preaching all wrong," Leia snapped as deep creases appeared in her weathered face. "And plenty of people are suffering because of it. Anissa told me before she left for that last mission that the last thing she wanted was for her daughter to grow up lost. She could feel that something was going to happen, and she made me promise. And I brought her to you thinking you'd help me keep that promise."

"And I did. I did, in the very best way I could," Luke retorted, his voice now trembling audibly. "When you brought Rey to me as a child, I did everything I could to try and be a father and Jedi. I failed at both. That's why I brought her to Jakku -"

"That's what you don't realize about having a child," Leia said, her voice almost a hiss as her eyes narrowed in the direction of her brother, her voice taking on a sharpness and a gravity that made even Luke feel some kind of chill. "Even when you fail them, you don't get to turn your back on them."

The long pause that followed was perhaps one of the most tense silences that Luke could recall ever experiencing. It was not one of peace or of meditation or thought. It was one of uncertainty and fear, of realization that he had in fact been wrong for all these years. It was confirmation of what he had long feared in the silence and the stillness of the island - that he had led a multitude of young lives astray because of his fear of failure. It was through fearing failure that he had failed.

"You need to help her as her father," Leia said sternly. "Not as her Master. Her father."

"I..." Luke began in a choked voice. "I wish I could," he said. "But I can't."

* * *

 _ **On Tatooine**_

* * *

The storm raged on even past the setting of Tatooine's two bright suns. Even sheltered from the wind, anyone caught out in the vast uninhabited desert would still be subjected to the unforgiving heat. Losing water quickly from their own sweat, Kylo Ren and Yasha Faygill had sat in complete silence and stillness to conserve energy - neither was willing to have survived the other in battle only to be defeated by heat and exhaustion. Despite his determination to the contrary, Kylo was the first to fall asleep - the same sleep he had know for many years, deep but dreamless.

He woke only when he became aware of an unnatural yet not uncomfortable warmth in his midsection. His eyes flew open, and out of reflex, he moved quickly - he caught Yasha Faygill's wrists in his larger hands and snarled defensively before his mind fully grasped what had happened.

While he had been sleeping, she had healed him. Kylo's expression fell, but he did not release her wrists. When he had been injured, they had done what they needed to in order to treat his wounds for the moment, but the aid had been poor and rudimentary - it was expected that he rely on his own strength to heal. Again, he felt a most hated emotion at the idea that she had perhaps committed some act of caring towards him. She had no right.

He then noticed that Yasha's face had gone a sickly pale color - she oughtn't have done this at all. She was already tired and weak, and she had still healed him.

"Stupid, sentimental girl," Kylo sneered, practically throwing her hands away from him, then realizing that the blank expression on her face had not changed at all. The stillness in her unsettled him, confused him, but then eventually... calmed him, in the manner that only Yasha had been able to. She had perfected this part of her training far too well, quieting and halting her own turmoil, her own self, and allowing herself to simply be a mirror for others. Kylo felt his defenses slip, because she provided him nothing to defend against. But in this state, in an instant, it meant that toward one another both their minds were now laid bare - an almost unintelligible wave of thoughts, memories, and emotions rushed the floodgates. He let out an agonized noise, clasping his hands on either side of his head and willing the connection away, while Yasha stepped back, her widened eyes the only sign of any reaction at all.

"I've seen it. All of it," Yasha said quietly, but the look of anger and terror on Kylo Ren's face looked as though she had screamed it. "I know what the Imbuing is. Snoke wants to merge himself with you, with the entire Stormtrooper Army. That's what the Marelignium is for, so he can transfer his consciousness into you."

Kylo's lip curled in disgust at the leveled accusation which happened to be true, and Yasha gently tilted her head back with a quiet groan at the confirmation of her suspicion. Supreme Leader Snoke needed Ben Solo then, and needed Kylo Ren now, because his connection to the Force made him a most viable host.

"He needs your power," Yasha pressed on, her brow furrowing into a deep frown. Kylo, however, raised his chin haughtily. "That's what he's preparing you for."

"The Supreme Leader has a larger purpose for me, and I am nearly ready to fulfill it," he sneered, leaning closer to Yasha as though in challenge. "I have realized what I need to do. I must overcome my fear of the Light. If I am to be worthy to stand at the right hand of the Supreme Leader, I cannot know fear. If I hide from the Light, it will always call. it will always best me. But if I can harness it..."

His voice trailed off, and he looked out into the distance, out the window and into the storm as though he was no longer even speaking to Yasha at all. She inhaled slowly through her nostrils and steeled her nerves before speaking. "If you believe that you can harness the power of the Light," Yasha began, "then you do not truly know it."

Kylo made a small snort of derision, of disgust, getting to his feet so he could tower over Yasha as he stood in front of her. "You sound like him."

Yasha knew immediately what the statement meant, and she could say nothing to the contrary because it was true - as much as she adamantly reminded anyone she encountered that she was no Jedi, Luke Skywalker's teachings still made their way into her words, into her actions. She had been well-trained, even if her training had been incomplete.

Kylo however could hardly be bothered to care whether or not Yasha knew about the Supreme Leader's plans - even if she knew them, after all, who was she to even dream of stopping them? What again brought the feeling of queasiness and inexplicable rage was what he had seen in her mind. When she looked at him, she still saw the weak boy that Kylo Ren had long banished from his mind - had long killed.

"You're foolish," he repeated. "You loved him. You still -"

But rather than relenting and listening to what he would say to her, Yasha instead turned on her heel and started back across the room. Kylo Ren knew her well enough to know what she had in mind, because Yasha Faygill was in some ways unchanging. To avoid the acknowledgment of the things she felt, of the emotions which terrified her, she would flee under any circumstances - she would even choose facing the wrath of the storm if it meant she did not need to acknowledge these things. Kylo's hand immediately extended, rigid and abrupt, causing her to stop in her tracks in spite of her efforts to fight back.

There was something satisfying about this, Kylo realized. She wanted to flee from him - she wanted to retreat. Yasha feared him, and this was what he had been waiting for from her. A slightly sinister smile curled at his lips as he moved to stand in front of her, looking into her eyes. But it was not fear that he saw there. It was still the same righteous anger that he knew so well. His smile fell. Did she not know that the sight of her was agonizing?

She did not realize, Kylo thought bitterly as his face contorted in anger while he looked over her face, that seeing that expression of peace in her face killed him. And moreover, she could not even grant him the satisfaction of a concession. Yasha Faygill would not be swayed, and in that sense was still very much the same.

"Did you love him?" Kylo said suddenly, the question somewhere between a growl and a sigh so that Yasha almost could have thought that she'd imagined it. "Ben Organa Solo. Did you truly love him?"

He released his hold on her just enough so she could move her head, though he noticed from the look in her eyes that she was no longer even straining to get free. She was also offering him no answers, as if she did not fear him. He did not want to pry the answer from the recesses of her mind. He wanted to hear her say now that she had come to hate him for what he had done, so he could be free of her - so the annihilation of Ben Solo could finally, after all these years, be completed. He wanted now to hear her deny that she had ever loved him, so that this final bastion of memory could be destroyed. But still she fought him. Still she refused to relent. "Answer me, Faygill."

"I have no answers to offer you, Commander. They are not yours to hear," she said in placid defiance, the same enfuriating demeanor that made Kylo feel the pull of the Light just by looking at her. "What I felt - what I feel for Ben Solo," Yasha began, and reflexively Kylo leaned ever so slightly closer as though anticipating the conclusion of the statement, "is for only him to hear."

Immediately, Kylo Ren let out a roar-like groan, swinging his arm out wide and striking the wall with his fist, then hitting it again in unprovoked rage. In his fury, his control over Yasha dropped, and her body shifted so she stood before him, upright and proud-shouldered. Kylo Ren gave another agonized noise and picked up his own lightsaber as well as Yasha's, shoving hers into her hands.

"Fight," he roared, enraged as he powered on his own weapon, the shorter crossguard blades crackling and snapping in reflection of his own rage. "We're going to end this, Faygill. Tonight."

But he felt his stomach churn when instead of complying, instead of bending to his will, she released her weapon so that it fell limply, hitting the floor with a clatter. He hissed as though she had injured him, and lurched forward, swiping it from the ground and again attempted to force it into her hands. This time, she threw it down with greater force, her gaze cold and steely.

"If Ben Solo were to ask me, he would receive any answer he requested," Yasha said calmly. "If Ben Solo were to ask me to fight, then I would fight. But I will not bow to you, Kylo Ren. You will not get what you are looking for from me."

For a short moment, he shook - he looked visibly pained and terrified by the challenge she had presented him, because he knew that in this, there was no victory for him. He could not truly defeat her if she refused to fight, but she would not grant Kylo Ren the satisfaction. He had to face her as Ben Solo - but if he allowed even a moment of weakness, all these years of carefully cultivated rage would have been for naught.

"I loved you, Ben," Yasha spoke up breaking the silence of his thoughts - he bristled and realized that in his inaction, she had made the decision for him and he could no longer dismiss it, as though he was now hypnotized by her. "I loved you. I still -"

But he clenched his eyes shut and made a gesture with his hand before she could finish - she crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

By the time she awoke once more, the storm had subsided and Tatooine's two suns had again risen. Yasha Faygill was still inside the shelter, alone with her lightsaber and half the shard of Marelignium at her side. A small smile flickered over her features, and a breath of relief filled her chest as she gathered her things and prepared herself to return home.

Ben Solo still existed, somewhere lost in the mind of Kylo Ren. He was there, and this was news she could bring back to General Organa. Perhaps, she conceded as she made her way back to the small ship she had taken to Tatooine in the first place, she welcomed the news too.

* * *

 _A/N's_

 _Longer chapter than usual! To the guest reviewer who was worried that they had "scared me away" from updating, you don't need to worry about that. I'm balancing updating with a full time job, grad school, and my family, so the updates won't be daily, but I'm slowly but surely getting my updates written. I also wanted to take the opportunity to plug "Incandescence" by **Not Enough Answers**. It's another Kylo Ren/OC story that is just starting out, but it has a lot of potential and I just recently was able to check out. So, if ever you want a recommendation for something to read between updates, there you have it!_

 _Anyway, back to writing! Thank you again for all of your support, you're amazing! Seeing the alerts on my phone when I get off of work is always crazy, but in a good way. Until next time, cheers!_

 _ **Next Time: The Resistance strives to formulate new plans, and Kylo Ren again faces the Supreme Leader.**_


	12. Repudiation

"So these rocks," Poe Dameron began skeptically as he stood with his arms crossed at the table, looking down at the Marelignium shard that Yasha had brought back from Tatooine, "are supposed to be able to do some Force mumbo jumbo and... _possess_ people?" The question was accompanied by a quirk of his eyebrow as he leaned closer, as though getting on eye level with the stone would reveal something to him.

For the Force-sensitives in the Resistance gathered around the table, the closest being the General herself, along with Rey and Yasha, the energy of the stone was palpable, almost as though the air were laden with smoke. If was clear that with the proper focus and effort, both amazing and awful things could be done with an object that emanated such power.

To others, however, it was just an amber rock. It did not glitter or sparkle in the dim light of the control room where they held their meetings. It did not make the air in its immediate vicinity pulse with energy. It was just a _rock_.

"Supreme Leader Snoke is planning on merging his own consciousness and his own abilities into all of his followers," Yasha spoke up, giving only what would perhaps make sense - much of it was still unclear, even to her. "In the absence of many Force-sensitives, he's building an army in the next best way he can find -"

"They have one," Poe interrupted, making pointed eye contact at Yasha, interrupting her explanation. "They have one Force-sensitive on their side."

"And the plan is for him to be first," Yasha said sternly, being as vague as she could manage. "That won't be happening yet, the preparations aren't complete yet. General," she said, turning to Leia - but the expression on the older woman's face indicated that after this meeting was through, she had a great deal of explaining to do. "There are only limited supplies of Marelignium supplies in our system that can be obtained without digging into the core of the planet."

"The First Order hasn't rebuilt itself to that capacity yet. Not after the loss of Starkiller Base," Rey piped in, her eyebrows raising. Yasha let out a breath of relief that Rey understood the way she was thinking. "If we beat them to it, then we'll have gotten in their way, we'll be able to stop them."

"My guys are ready to go, just say the word," Poe nodded eagerly, a far cry from his skepticism of moments earlier now that it had been explained in terms he could understand - that was, perhaps, something he liked best about Rey. She spoke in concrete terms, with reason, with strategy. She _understood_. "What's the next planet they'd be targeting?"

"Dantooine," General Organa nodded, having just powered up the projection of the map that had been obtained by the Crawler, days ago. "There's a desert mountain range in the southern hemisphere with energy traces in the westernmost slopes," she said, tracing her finger along the projection of the planet, zoomed in and pulling the mountains into view. "Are you sure you want this assignment, Commander Dameron? It doesn't call for airstrikes, I'm not sure if -"

"It's been a little while, but we're just as good on the ground," he said with a slightly smug grin. "I can have my guys ready in two hours, tops. I want Finn with us," he said, locking eyes with the younger man across the room and giving a sharp, upward nod, beckoning him over. "We'll take the Cruiser. Leave together, come back together. Quick and easy."

"You're sure about this, Commander?" the General asked, her brow furrowed in concern as she mentally mulled over Poe Dameron's proposal. They wanted to try and use the First Order's plans against them - but Leia knew, perhaps better than many others, that attempting to beat the Dark Side at its own game was a dangerous and slippery slope. "You've been exclusively flying aircraft much smaller than the cruiser for quite a while now -"

"Maybe. But don't forget," Poe said with a cocksure grin and a shrug, "I can fly anything."

The statement elicited cheers and muted clapping from some of his colleagues and fellow pilots - classic Poe Dameron. Even General Organa had to grudgingly allot the man a smile - it was his good humored sense of derring-do, his ability to boost spirits and rally everyone behind him, that had brought him so high in the ranks of the Resistance. It was his charisma and his faith in everything he did, even in the face of imminent defeat, that made the others willing to follow him even into the throes of death. It was why he was a desirable ally, and the worst of enemies.

So General Organa gave him permission to gather up the rest of his men, to make any necessary preparations, and to make haste to Dantooine in hopes of beating the First Order there. With the meeting adjourned and the others filing out of the control room, it left General Organa to lock eyes with Yasha and close the door so that they were alone in the room.

"You saw him," Leia said, her expression softening into the same one she always bore when discussing her son this way. "I can feel it in you, Yasha. He was there on Tatooine."

" _Ben_ was on Tatooine with me," Yasha said fiercely, taking a few steps closer to Leia and taking in a deep, heaving breath and facing the older woman, remembering and once again feeling an old, familiar sense of awe when interacting with her. "Everything I know, everything I learned about their plans - it came from him. He opened his mind to me, Your Highness, he -"

Leia's eyes fluttered shut at the old title. Your Highness. In other times, she might have tried to correct Yasha for the stumble, to remind her that she did not see herself as Princess Leia Organa any longer. But there were greater things afoot, and she simply shook her head, gesturing for Yasha to continue.

"Ben isn't lost," Yasha said, and Leia felt a slight stab of pain upon hearing the younger woman's voice as she said the three words. She sounded so much like the girl that Leia had come to know, so many years ago - so full of hope and so full of love for Ben. For the entirety of the Resistance, General Organa was their stalwart leader, who placed them above all things - above her own comfort and peace, above her own family. But to Yasha Faygill she was still Princess Leia, and they were perhaps the only two remaining people who harbored any hope for Ben Solo. Strangely enough, this woman who had practically disappeared from existence for over ten years was the only one with whom General Leia Organa could, even if only for a moment, drop those pretenses.

"Where is Master Skywalker?" Yasha managed to ask, her features wrinkling slightly in concern. "I haven't seen him since I returned."

"He's away again. Hid himself away in a cave because he can't get through to _her_ ," Leia said, turning away slowly and shaking her head. Yasha's shoulders drooped visibly in disappointment as well. "He refuses to change, Yasha. The ways he learned, he knows nothing else."

"He'll change when he must," Yasha supplied weakly, not sure if she believed it or not. She had long believed the same - that Master Skywalker would change if he needed to, that he would know when the time was right. She chose ignore the fact that he had been perhaps neither willing nor able in all the years she spent in his tutelage. "When the time comes for him to come out and stand with us, he will."

"I hope you're right, Yasha," Leia sighed. "I hope so."

* * *

It wasn't that Rey found anything particularly fascinating about the mission to Dantooine that would make her want to go. She simply wanted to be tasked with doing something - anything. She wanted to have more assigned to her than learning the ways of the Force. There had been a time when the Force was a thing of legend, something powerful and amazing. Now, for Rey, waiting to understand the force felt a great deal like sitting back and doing nothing at all. For all the she could remember of her life, she had never had the luxury of doing nothing. She had no desire to start now.

And to make matters even more difficult to accept, they wanted Finn to come with them to Dantooine - Finn, who for the entirety of the journey up to this point, had been by her side. Her equal. Now, suddenly, he was accepted. Rey noticed and thought often about how easily it seemed that Finn had come to find camaraderie among the other pilots and ground troops of the Resistance. He had come to belong - even in spite of his origins. Rey had, over the course of her first journey to find Master Skywalker, worried that when Finn woke from his injuries and recovered, he might not find refuge and sympathy for having been an enemy. But he had been more than simply welcomed. He had become _one of them_ , and had done it almost immediately.

And here she was, being guided against her will along the lonely path of a Jedi. Because, she thought it bitterly, it had gone so well the _last_ time that Master Skywalker had tried training young Jedi before. Rey had never been one to harbor bitterness because it was useless and impractical - but what she felt now was something like it. There was something grating, she conceded, about seeing Finn come to belong in a way that she had not been able to, when in her mind they were meant to walk on parallel paths, wherever this mission led them.

Like clockwork, just as she was thinking of him, he appeared, taking a hearty bite out of a slice of bread, already dressed and prepared to go. Prepared to leave her behind here on D'Qar while he went off to have adventures. To be useful. How, Rey thought with some small amount of bitterness, was she meant to communicate to him that she felt as though she were being left behind?

"Hey, Rey -"

"Finn, please," the young woman said shortly, her fresh face twisted slightly into a deep frown as she turned from her food to look up at the young man who had just moved to sit across from her in the dining area. "I'm already struggling enough as it is, I don't need to be distracted. Aren't you supposed to be preparing to leave for Dantooine?"

Finn's jaw clenched slightly, the tightness now visible in the tendon of his neck. He cleared his throat, shrugging slightly as though it were no skin off his back. Nothing at all, he reminded himself. After all, Rey was important. She was their secret weapon, their connection to the Force. He couldn't very well expect her to be distracted by a lowly former Stormtrooper. "Hey now," he said with a forced laugh. "Wasn't trying to distract anybody. I just forgot how important you are for a second there, Rey. My mistake."

And immediately, regret flooded Rey as she watched him walk away to join Poe and the other pilots as they were leaving. He simply wouldn't have understood, Rey reasoned as she looked back down at her food in silence, that it was easier to push him away this way than to see him drift away slowly, to watch him begin to belong while she remained on the outskirts, continuing to look in. It was simply easier this way.

* * *

 _ **Aboard the First Order Star Destroyer  
**_

* * *

"Are you prepared to try again, Commander?"

Kylo Ren, again masked and clothed in his familiar black garments, stared up into the projected, holographic face of Supreme Leader Snoke and first nodded. "Yes, Supreme Leader," he said, though there was a slight hitch in his voice. Of course, he could never truly look forward to what he knew was coming - the onslaught of the Supreme Leader into his consciousness in attempts to infuse himself into Kylo Ren's mind. But in since his return from Tatooine, he had felt something different in him. He did not feel the same sensations wringing his insides like a wet rag, the same apprehension. Since Tatooine, something inside him felt _brave_.

"I am prepared," Kylo Ren spoke up, drawing himself up straight and withdrawing the shard of Marelignium - his success in procuring it was the event to which he had attributed this sudden surge of energy and power within him. Kylo had even banished it from his mind that he had not even brought the _entire_ stone back to Snoke. He placed the amber stone on the ground between himself and Snoke and looked up at the monolithic projection of a man, the familiar face that controlled and even at times haunted him, had done so for years now since he had been only a boy. "Supreme Leader, I have obtained the stone - I have held it, and I have never felt such power."

But Kylo felt his surge of confidence wither at the silence that followed. Ominously, the Supreme Leader's eyes shut, and there was a chill in Kylo Ren as he realized that Snoke was preparing to begin, initiating his assessment of the younger man's preparedness. Kylo Ren prepared himself for the intense pain to begin, steeling himself and clenching his eyes shut beneath his helmet. Except, unlike all the times prior, it did not come. Kylo opened his eyes and looked up at the being before him. "My Leader?"

"You do indeed have a new power coursing through you, Commander," Snoke said, his voice breathy and growl-like as he leaned forward from his throne, down toward Kylo Ren. "But it is of no use to me. It is a power I cannot touch."

"I don't understand, Supreme Leader."

"It is power fueled by the _Light_ -"

"No," Kylo interrupted in a rare show of actual, raw emotion he allowed himself in front of the Supreme Leader. "My Leader, that cannot be. It is the Marelignium, I'm sure - it is simply not enough -"

"I will give you one final chance, Commander. Five days," Snoke said in an eerily calm tone. Despite the fact that he was not truly, physically in the room, Kylo could have sworn that he felt the heat of the enormous being's breath on his face as he spoke. "Prove yourself to me, Commander - or remove yourself from my service."

"My Leader -"

But this time, the projection of the Supreme Leader again faded into blackness, leaving Kylo Ren completely alone once again. He stormed out of the great throne room, past General Hux who was standing outside. He did not pause to notice the barely-concealed smirk on the fairer man's face, having heard the entire exchange. Commander Kylo Ren had greater worries which took priority over acknowledging the man's smugness. He needed to fulfill his mission, and fulfill it in even more haste, with even more force.

He needed to get to Dantooine, and he needed to get there first.

* * *

 _A/N's_

 _A bit of a montage-style chapter, but hopefully you didn't absolutely hate the jumping around! Anyway, I just wanted to take one last step back for a last word about the good that has come out of the whole unfortunate bashing/trolling incident that I briefly got pulled into. Ever since, I've started making efforts to be more positive, to write more reviews and let people know how much I appreciate their work and them as writers. And because of it, I have received so much kindness and positivity in return - it has been astounding and amazing. I've gotten to opportunity to talk with more people, especially fellow writers, and see just how genuinely good and kind they are. So, thank you fireree (or whichever username you currently use) for in a roundabout way giving the me an opportunity to get to know such great people. Out of something so negative, came something extremely positive._

 _Truly, the Force always makes its way towards balance. I'm glad that whole fiasco is over and we can all just back to enjoying what we do!  
_

 _And of course, as always, all of my readers (especially those who I have heard from in the form of reviews and messages) are AWESOME. I have long days at work that sometimes leave me exhausted, but seeing the notifications from all of you is one of the best pep talks I could ask for._

 _The next few chapters, as a breather for myself before we jump into some of the bigger action surrounding the Imbuing and Snoke's plans, are going to be flashback interludes again, back to a crucial few days in the past that began Ben Solo's transformation into Kylo Ren. Until the next update, cheers!_

 ** _Next Time: Sixteen years prior, Ben Solo and Yasha Faygill arrive at the Summer Palace for the Intersystem Summit of the New Republic_**


	13. Interlude: The Summer Palace Pt I

_**Sixteen Years Prior...**_

* * *

"This is home for you?" Yasha asked in disbelief as the disembarked from the ship sent to fetch them from the Jedi Temple. "Mother of Moons..."

The airstrip where they landed was adjacent to the large palace - a summer palace on Endor. After the defeat of the Galactic Empire, while the Republic had deigned Hosnian Prime its new capital, the Ewoks had felt such welcome towards the Princess that there was no resistance to her building a new home here on their planet where she could safely raise her family, trusting that she was no threat to the other species and inhabitants of the planet. Here was where Ben had grown up - even when his parents were, more often than not, away in favor of their careers.

This, however, was not a visit for leisure's sake. This week, the Summer Palace of Endor was hosting the Intersystem Summit of the New Republic, where soon delegates would soon be arriving to celebrate the anniversary of the formation of the New Republic and to renew their covenant of peaceful diplomacy with one another. Princess Leia Organa Solo - Ben's mother - had requested Luke's presence at the very least, but the request was one that could not be fulfilled. The training of a new generation of Jedi, after all, was not a duty that could be put on hold. So, in his stead, Luke Skywalker had deemed it best to send his two best pupils: Ben Solo and Yasha Faygill.

Ben smirked a little at the astounded expression that Yasha could not seem to cover up as the made their way towards the doors to the great hall of the Summer Palace. Back at the Temple with the others, she was always so even-keeled, so disciplines and perfectly controlled. But here, away from Master Skywalker and from the constant regimen of meditation and training, she was simply another person.

Perhaps a small part of him enjoyed seeing her out of her element this way.

"You'll want to stop dawdling and staring like that," Ben deadpanned, walkin a step or two in front of her as they ascended the grand marble front steps towards the grand wooden doors. "My mother is expecting us. We'll be late."

"The Princess?" Yasha asked, wide-eyed and immediately picking up her own pace so abruptly that she nearly tripped over the steps. Admittedly, she took some level of pleasure in teasing Ben for his status as the little prince of the new Jedi Academy, but only because there, he was still no different from them. But Endor was not the same case. This was his home. This was his kingdom, and Yasha was a mere farmgirl encroaching upon it, taking up space.

"Ben, you're early!"

Ben, with his longer limbs and faster strides, had obviously reached the door first, and upon opening it had been greeted by a woman who must have been his mother - the Princess, and the Chief of State of the New Republic. While the older woman came forward and immediately wrapped her arms around her son with immense warmth and fondness, Yasha found herself frozen a few steps from the top. She had never so much as met a Senator from her home planet of Lothal, and now she was faced with meeting the leader of the entire Republic.

Ben, however, slowly pulled back and smoothed out his humble Jedi garments - he cleared his throat and attempted to regain some level of composure, despite having already having been bombarded with affection by his mother. He was here on official business - he wasn't home for a visit. He knew that his mother would not see it this way, but his pride in his Jedi training required him to at least try.

"Thank you for your kind hospitality in hosting us, Your -"

"Ben," Leia said, her eyebrows rising gently as she crossed her arms over her chest - Yasha felt a pang of sadness, thinking of the way that her mother used to do the same, probably still did the same with all of her brothers and sisters back home. "Luke isn't here, you don't need to behave like a Jedi. You're my son, and your friend - this young woman," Leia said, her gaze now moving over to Yasha, "is our guest. And our guest looks like she hasn't been fed in a good while," she added with a chuckle, noting that Yasha's face had gone pale at the prospect of meeting royalty.

"Is Father here?" Ben interrupted as Yasha closed the distance between them, joining him at the top step with his mother and subsequently following them inside, allowing the heavy doors to close behind them.

"He'll be away for the Summit, I'm afraid," Leia said as she led the pair of young Jedi apprentices further into the hall. Ben tensed slightly at the sight of his mother's expression showing a flicker of both disappointment and annoyance. "You know he has no patience for diplomacy. It bores him."

Ben's silence clearly bothered his mother, and her expression shifted, her head tilting to one side to attempt to make eye contact with her son, which he was now pointedly avoiding. "Don't be too disappointed with him, Ben. You know your father."

"Yes," he said somewhat shortly - Yasha glanced downward and saw his hands clenched into fists at his sides. "I know him very well, mother. I'm not surprised."

Yasha felt immensely as though she were intruding on a private moment between the pair, and she squirmed slightly where she stood until Leia glanced at her, noticing her discomfort. This girl, Leia realized, was perhaps the only way to get out of a very uncomfortable situation.

"Ben, can I trust you to make sure your friend is comfortable?" she asked casually. "There are a few things I need to tend to before tonight -"

"Tonight?" Ben asked, his brow furrowing questioningly. "What's happening tonight?"

"The reception for all the delegates in the summit?" Leia asked. "Luke didn't tell you both?"

"Well, this is going to be a problem," Ben smirked, giving Yasha a sidelong glance before looking back at his mother. "Yasha hasn't got anything else to wear for a reception -"

"Ben," Leia chided again, noticing the slight flinch in the young woman who clearly felt out of place already, just standing in the hall of the palace. "We can take care of that. She's our guest - so please, Ben," she said redirecting him with such adeptness that Yasha couldn't help but nearly smile at the realization that she had probably done this many times before with Ben as a child. "Make sure she's comfortable here until the reception?"

* * *

"You don't know what this is?"

"Well, obviously, it's bread."

Yasha wasn't entirely sure she was enjoying the experience of being exposed to new things - to the life in which Ben had grown up prior to his arrival to train with Master Skywalker. Ben, however, seemed to take great pleasure in the fact that all of the luxuries which had been routine for him were so new to a farm girl from Lothal like Yasha.

"Honey melon jam," Ben added, halfway between amusement and exasperation at the fact that a farm girl from Lothal simply didn't know a lot of finer things in the same way that he did. He held a biscuit out to her and nodded for her to take it. Her brow wrinkled, her skepticism showing before she took it into her own hand and took a bite. After a moment of processing the taste, her eyes widened in surprise and she took another large bite from the biscuit. In a third bite, she had finished it entirely.

Ben Solo had to admit, it was pleasant to know so many things that Yasha did not - to have her show such open and genuine admiration for him, as though he were extremely worldly in some way. First, he had taken her on a brief tour of the Summer Palace and the grounds - he had, admittedly, made up a few stories about the history behind some of the tapestries and statues in his childhood home, but Yasha hardly knew any better. He had finally settled had the help bring them a tray of food when they sat on the veranda overlooking the gardens, where they had a perfect view of the starships of the various delegates as they arrived in the nearby towns, which had only recently been erected on the planet to accommodate the visiting humans.

"They're not that interesting, you know," Ben said, his expression souring slightly as Yasha's gaze was transfixed on the arriving delegates. He moved so that he was blocking her view of them, to ensure that she was listening to him. "If you've met one of them, you've met them all."

"Well, I _haven't_ yet met one," Yasha said matter-of-factly before craning her neck and peering around Ben to get a look at a particular convoy of delegates who appeared to have elongated snouts on their faces, being of a species that Yasha had never even encountered, "so they're still interesting to me."

What the pair did not know, however, was that as they watched the various delegates arrive and as Ben continued to regale Yasha with tales of his childhood in the Endor Summer Palace, they too were being watched.

Leia could see from the window of the upper levels of the palace that Ben had somehow managed to occupy himself with simply talking to this young colleague of his for hours - that the young woman hung on his word, and gave him the attention that Leia had long known that he craved, but had rarely been able to give him. After all, a Republic could not simply have been left to run itself.

"The young prince has been quite the gracious host to the young lady from Lothal," Threepio chirped, standing at the window next to the lady leader of the Republic. Leia simply chuckled, glancing back over her shoulder at the droid.

"I'll give you three guesses why," she said with a mischievous grin, not looking away from the window. "She could be good for him. I haven't seen him excited about honey melon jam since he was a little boy. I haven't seen him excited about much of anything, actually."

"But why ever would the young lady make his Highness excited about honey melons?"

"Threepio," Leia chuckled, rolling her eyes gently. "It's not the honey melons my son is excited about."

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Leia knew that this was not her brother's intention - she knew that having his two best students develop more than a platonic, perhaps familial bond was counterproductive to the plans he had for them. But the girl was good for Ben, Leia thought resolutely, and the Jedi Order could use a little shaking up.

"Would you let the two of them know it's time to get ready for the Reception?" Leia asked Threepio, fighting back a smile. "I've had something for Yasha laid out in her guest suite."

* * *

"I'm not coming out of here."

"You have to," Ben said from the other side of the door, hitting his fist impatiently on the doorjamb while Yasha refused to emerge. "Master Skywalker said we have to attend all of the delegate events to represent him."

There was a brief silence, and Ben smirked as he realized he had been successful in pushing the slightly younger girl's buttons. She had never been able to bear with ease the thought of disappointing Master Skywalker. He took a step back to allow the door to open, and blinked in surprise when Yasha emerged, clad in a purple dinner dress with long sheer sleeves - she held a gold headpiece in her hand that resembled a thin tiara, look down at it then up at Ben with a look of apprehension.

"Your mother had this sent to my room," she said with hesitation. "But I don't think I should be wearing it. Isn't this the kind of thing royalty should wear?"

"Well, I'm royalty and you're my guest. So I suppose that's good enough," he said, nonchalantly plucking it from Yasha's hands and placing it on her head, gently tucking her shoulder-length hair behind her ears with it. "And if my mother had it sent to you, you have to wear it. It'd be an offense if you didn't."

"Oh."

For a moment, Ben actually paused to notice the young woman's discomfort - but also her appearance as a whole.

"You look nice," he said stiffly. "For a farmgirl."

And with that, she let out a comfortable yet humorously derisive snort through her nostrils, rolling her eyes at him and shattering what had felt almost like a spell. He offered his arm, and she accepted as they made their way to the grand reception hall.

Yasha Faygill had expected to be able to simply stand against the wall somewhere and observe the event, mingling only as necessary, but her expectations were flouted by the Princess's direction that Ben and Yasha stand at either side of her as she greeted each of the arriving delegates in turn after Threepio announced their entrance.

"Junior Officer Hux on behalf of Senator Snoke, representing the Unincorporated Territories of the Outer Rim," Threepio read aloud.

Leia tensed visibly at the announcement of this name in particular, and when the light-haired, fair-skinned young man approached the platform where Leia stood with Ben and Yasha, the handshake she offered him - as well as the bow he offered in return - was markedly forced.

"My Master sends his regrets that he was not able to attend in person," Hux said with his sweeping bow.

"I have come to expect Senator Snoke to be present by proxy at all functions. I am sure he is a very busy man," Leia nodded, a stiffness to her tone indicated that she didn't miss the man's presence at all. "But I would hope to have to pleasure of meeting him in person in the near future."

"Indeed," Hux said with a toothy grin, before turning his gaze to the young man and woman on either side of the Princess. Leia bristled at the glance Hux cast over her son.

"My son, Ben Solo," Leia said haughtily, stepping forward as she gestured towards him and subtly prompting Hux to take a step back. "And Yasha Faygill of Lothal. Luke Skywalker's best and brightest of the new Order of Jedi Knights."

"A pleasure," Hux said, offering a sweeping bow towards Ben, then reaching out for Yasha's hand, brushing a deceptively chivalrous kiss over the skin of her knuckles. Leia, catching a sidelong glimpse of how her son's lip fought against curling into a sneer, cleared her throat primly.

"Enjoy the feast, Junior Officer," she nodded, politely indicating that his audience with them was, for the moment, over. Hux forced another smile and a bow before sweeping aside to allow the next delegate to be introduced.

Yasha, on her part, was too fascinated by the immense diversity of all of the delegates to dwell much on the interaction with Junior Officer Hux - but Ben noted all through dinner the way that the other young man consistently threw glances in his colleagues direction. Just because she's cleaned up a bit, Ben thought with disdain. He, too, managed to catch Hux's gaze at one point during dinner and shot him a blank, piercing stare, attempting to get into his mind - only to find that the atmosphere was far too distracting. He couldn't yet quite manage it, especially from across the long table.

After dinner came the social event of dancing, while the music was played by the Band of Traveling Bimms, who Yasha had just learned were in high demand throughout their sector of the galaxy. This, she decided, was more of the night she had expected while she stood peacefully against the wall, perfectly content to simply listen to the music played by the furry, diminutive men with lyres and horns and an organ. The dancing could be left to Ben. He, however, noted his companion standing aside from everyone and had very nearly started over towards her in order to make her dance - because certainly, he couldn't be the only one forced to engage in something so frivolous - until he caught sight of another individual making their way towards her.

"It appears I've moved too slowly and everyone's already partnered off," young Junior Officer Hux chuckled as he stood in front of Yasha, offering her another polite bow - something Yasha would never really grow accustomed to. "Would you like to dance? I'm afraid I look rather foolish."

Ben's fists clenched at his sides - he had, moments earlier, only been considering approaching Yasha out of charity for her, so she wouldn't look foolish. And now, this dandy of a junior officer was on the scene. Yasha Faygill, the farmgirl, may have been a bit of a charity case - but in Ben's mind, she was _his_ charity case. He strode purposefully over, not sure what his intention was, but before he could even consider the means by which he would confront the situation, the song ended and Hux stepped back from Yasha with a slight bow. In doing so, he caught a sidelong glance of Ben Solo and pivoted with a grin, now seamlessly able to address them both.

"Just the person I wanted to see," Hux said with an incline of his head in Ben's direction. "I had just asked milady Yasha if my master could have the pleasure of an audience with the both of you. _Just_ you," he specified with a saccharine grin.

"And what was her response?" Ben asked. Though the question was directed toward Hux, his gaze flicked toward Yasha, his eyes narrowed slightly in suspicion, and in return, her eyes narrowed slightly at him as well.

"Milady made it clear that all requests for an audience would need to go through His Highness," Hux recited. "There was a forest clearing I saw as I was landing, just west of the lake at the far edge of the grounds. Do you know it?"

"This is my home," Ben said, fighting back a sneer as he regarded Hux, drawing himself up to full height and endeavoring to appear as regal as he could. "Of course I know it."

"Tomorrow evening at sunset," Hux grinned disconcertingly, glancing back and forth between Ben and Yasha. "Senator Snoke would very much like to meet the best and brightest of the new generation of Jedi Knights. It would be an honor."

Yes, Ben thought as the sides of his mouth quirked into a subdued grin. They _should_ be honored to meet him. He _was_ the best. He _was_ the brightest.

"Very well," Ben nodded. "Inform the Senator that we will honor his request for an audience."

"The Senator values his privacy," Hux continued, raising his eyebrows. Even now, from across the room, Leia cast wary glances at their interaction of which she could not hear a word. Clearly, Hux wished for it to remain this way. "He would be much obliged if this meeting were kept quiet, Your Highness."

"Done."

Junior Officer Hux offered his gloved hand for Ben to shake, and Ben accepted, shaking the man's hand with a firmer grip than perhaps was called for. His expression again turned to one of annoyance when again, Hux reached over and brushed a kiss across the back on Yasha's hand. Ben felt a wave of satisfaction, however, at the fact that Yasha seemed indifferent - even a bit disgusted by the gesture. Farmgirls didn't appreciate such showy gestures, Ben thought to himself. He was unsure of why Hux's interest in Yasha seemed so perturbing, only that it did, and that he was determined for it to cease.

It was only after the ball had long ended and Ben was again alone in his old childhood bedroom that he arrived at a conclusion: Yasha Faygill was not just any farmgirl. She was _his_ farmgirl. But more than possession, he realized that something in him was bewitched by the way she was so fascinated with honey melon jam, or Bimms playing lyres. Something in him was attached to the way she remained at his side, in his sight, even when she regarded him with annoyance.

Yasha Faygill was a stable presence, the likes of which Ben Solo could not say he had experienced - between a father in unrelenting pursuit of adventure and profit, and a mother with a Republic to run, he knew more about the absence of those he cared for than the presence. But that was not what Yasha Faygill had been - and because of that, Ben Solo arrived very easily at a decision about what that should mean.

* * *

 _A/N's_

 _Sorry for the long stint between updates! Currently in the process of prepping a draft of my master's thesis proposal, and it's eaten up most of my waking hours. But never fear, I haven't forgotten you. Thank you to everyone for getting me up to 100 reviews (holy cow!). And also, thank you to all of you who sent me messages to poke me and see if I was still breathing. I hope to keep delivering more good updates!_

 _Took a few AU liberties with Snoke and Hux, but have some big plans for them moving forward. So, buckle your seatbelts! The ensemble cast is on the scene. There's going to be one more chapter of this particular flashback before we get back to the main action. So, you'll be seeing Finn, Rey, Poe, and the rest of the gang again soon. I just need a little backdrop to be set for what's to come. That being said, I should probably get back to work. It might be a few days again until the next update, but rest assured that it's on its way! Until next update, cheers!_

 ** _Next Time: A confession, an eventful meeting, and show of strength._**


	14. Interlude: The Summer Palace Pt II

_**The Endor Summer Palace, the Next Day...**_

* * *

"You seemed to enjoy all of the attention he was paying you," Ben pointed out with forced nonchalance as he and Yasha walked down the forest path along the outer grounds of the Summer Palace, needing to keep themselves otherwise occupied during the actual forum of delegates as they discussed more delicate matters. The day had been mostly one of taking Yasha around the grounds, bringing her into the kitchen to sample some of the dishes being prepared for the delebates. "Junior Officer Hux seemed to take a very genuine interest -"

"I don't care abut his interest," Yasha retorted. "Why do _you_?"

"Because I'm obviously the better choice," Ben said with a slight sneer - though in an instant, he realized that he wasn't entirely sure if he meant he was the better choice for Hux's attention... or Yasha's, which admittedly, he had somewhat missed when it was not directed towards him. He fully acknowledged his envy but didn't care to differentiate between the individuals at whom it could be directed.

"Hux wanted to speak to us both," Yasha replied curtly. "I don't think he was paying any more attention to me than he was to you -"

"It isn't a matter of how much attention," Ben said, striding forward with his long legs so that he cut Yasha off as she was walking, standing in her path. "It's a matter of what kind."

"Well, if you'd like to tell him to stop kissing my hand, I'd be all too grateful," Yasha said with a dismissive roll of her eyes, stepping around Ben to continue walking. He sneered slightly and, noting her unwillingness to discuss the issue further, strode off again ahead of her, relishing in the exasperated mumbles that came from her as he again pulled ahead on the forest path. Ben realized only after a few paces that Yasha was no longer next to him and had instead taken a seat on a nearby tree stump, yawning vigorously and rubbing her eyes.

"What's the matter with you?" he asked, doubling back and cocking his head to one side in annoyance. "Didn't sleep?"

"Not much," she mumbled tiredly.

"You're joking," Ben said with a slightly sardonic grin. "The softest bed you've probably ever slept in and now you choose not to get any rest?"

"Well, that's the point," Yasha said, her shoulders slumping slightly. "Mother of moons knows when the next time I'll get to lay on a bed like that again will be. Do you really think I'm going to sleep through it?"

So she did notice it, Ben thought to himself with more than a little satisfaction in the realization. She noticed that being here on Endor was a world apart from their life back at the Academy, and that now was the time, perhaps, to do things that would otherwise not be done.

He just had to convince her.

"Well, we can't meet Hux this evening with you yawning that way," Ben said, shaking his head. "Sleep here."

"In the woods?" Yasha asked skeptically. "I'll be eaten out here. You think I'm going to go to _sleep_?"

"I'll be watching you," Ben said, crossing his arms over his chest. "Honestly, you come away from the Academy for a couple of days and already you're becoming such a... a girl."

It was veiled as an insult, perhaps, but to Ben, it was a confession to say Yasha was acting like a girl - it was a confession that perhaps he, too, saw her as such. The constancy she had exhibited as his both his rival and his friend at the Academy was enough to solidify in his mind that she was worthy.

"We're really going to meet with him, then?" Yasha asked skeptically, breaking Ben out of his thoughtful silence. He flinched slightly, realizing that she had gotten to her feet and was now standing in front of him, her features creased in apprehension. In fear. "I don't know if I like that man, Ben. I think there's something -"

"You don't need to be scared, you know," Ben interrupted, waving his hand dismissively and chuckling at her hesitations. "I'm going to be there too."

And he looked her in the eyes this time - not a piercing, commanding stare, but rather a glance that for whatever reason, he sincerely hoped assuaged her worries. Didn't she have faith in him? Did she think that he would be incompetent enough to allow any harm to come her way in his presence?

"You should rest," he continued, though his hands fought against clenching into fists at his sides at the possibility that maybe Yasha believed him incapable of looking out for her. Yasha stared briefly, eyes filled with skepticism, but moved back over to sit next to the same tree stump where she had been sitting earlier, leaning back against it and allowing her eyes to drift shut. Satisfied that she'd at least complied, Ben moved over to sit on the tree stump and look down at her while she tried to sleep.

"It's almost a shame that we're leaving in a couple of days," Yasha yawned, her voice slightly muffled as she raised her arm to cover her mouth. "It's a little cruel, learning about the way other people live and never getting to live it..."

To Ben, hearing these words seemed to flip a switch in his mind, pulling him back to the same thoughts he'd had the night before, alone in his room. Did this mean that she had been thinking about him? As knowledgeable as Ben wanted to find himself, he wasn't sure. But if she was tired and relaxed, surely it would take very little to get into her mind. He'd been practicing, after all. He could see whatever answers he needed with just a moment's access... just a glimpse...

"Whatever you want to know, you could always ask. I'd tell you."

Ben's eyes, which had drifted shut as he began to try and enter Yasha's mind, quickly opened to find Yasha awake and staring at him with a raised eyebrow. He put on an air of nonchalance, though it admittedly stung a great deal that he'd not been able to breech her mental defenses undetected.

And even worse, she was angry. Yasha, exasperated, got to her feet and began storming away down the path, he fatigue forgotten. Ben's jaw clenched, and before he could help himself, he raised his hand and, with his brow creased in concentration, caused Yasha to freeze in her tracks. She let out an angry groan and narrowed her eyes as Ben briskly strode over to stand next to her.

"You think you can use your abilities for anything, you think it can get you anywhere," she snarled through gritted teeth, still trying to free her limbs from the hold that Ben had not yet released. "My thoughts are mine, Ben. You can't come and go from them as you please if you're going to call me your friend -"

"Perhaps I don't want to call you my friend, then."

And even though Ben released his hold on her, granting her control again over her own body, the only movement visible in her was her arms slumping down at her sides while she stared at him in confusion.

"Ben -"

"You're not only my friend, Yasha," he said, but while there was something honest, almost sweet about the sentiment, it seemed to perturb him - even to anger him. "And I need to know if you -"

But before his confession could go any further, Yasha had sucked in a deep breath and started down the path away from him, her own face angry and pale as well. Ben clenched his jaw and walked after her, reaching out and grabbing a hold of her forearm, firmly stopping her in her tracks so he was standing in front of her and blocking her path again.

"You told me that if I asked, you'd tell me," he said, his face twisting slightly in anger. "You said -"

"I know what I said, and I'm walking away before you ask a question that is going to ruin us both if I answer it," Yasha snapped, shaking her head and making a slicing gesture with her hands, as though doing so might dispel the situation, might cut away the thoughts together. "Someday soon, you and I are going to be Jedi, and this is going to be out of the question. If we even entertain the thought now, it'll only hurt us more -"

"So you've thought of it too," Ben said, drawing himself up to full height before closing the space between himself and Yasha, placing his hands on his shoulders to keep her from darting away. "Since I've known you, you've been constant. You've been true. You're going to be a good Jedi, and you make me want to be a better one - the best one. What else is there?"

"What you're thinking," Yasha began slowly, sounding almost as though she was sick to her stomach, "goes against everything that Master Skywalker taught us Jedi are supposed to be -"

"Then maybe he's wrong."

The suggestion, however, seemed to shock Yasha - the thought of Luke Skywalker being wrong, when she had dedicated herself wholly to the faithful following of his tutelage, was unheard of. She shut her eyes and began to shake her head, only to find her motions stopped, not by and psychic manipulation, but by Ben's slightly calloused hands resting on either side of her face and his lips pressing against hers. His hands were gentle, but he kissed her with a demand and an urgency which very much suited his demeanor.

If one were to be kissed by Ben Solo, Yasha thought while strangely dizzied in surprise by the moment, they should expect no less.

It took a moment to realize that she was not simply being kissed by Ben Solo. She was reciprocating. She let out a small gasp and pulled back, eyes widened in surprise. Ben, however, shot her a lopsided grin before reaching out for her hands again.

"You and I make one another better," he said matter-of-factly. "There can be nothing wrong with this. With _us_."

"But we're going to be Jedi," Yasha persisted. "And Master Skywalker -"

"- isn't going to live forever," Ben said, gesturing widely with his arms. "We're his best pupils. One day, you and I will make the rules. One day, it won't matter -"

"We don't get to make the rules," Yasha said, running a hand over her hair and turning away, unable to look into Ben's dark eyes as they had this conversation. "Just because we -"

"So you don't care for me?" Ben asked, his voice suddenly going quiet - almost cold in his disappointment. Yasha tensed as though a shock had run through her at the accusation. If she were to say that she didn't care for Ben, it would be a lie. She cared for him. She knew the things because she had thought them too - but unlike him, when weighing these thoughts and emotions against her sense of duty, the latter won out. Discipline over desire. Balance over self.

But if Ben asked, she had promised to answer. Was that, too, not duty?

"Do you care for me?" Ben repeated. Slowly, Yasha turned around, her face fearful as though she stood on the edge of a precipice. This moment, he knew now, would determine what Yasha Faygill would be to him thereafter.

"I do," she said in a quiet voice, only audible because of the stillness and quiet of the forest around them. Now, as though the admission, even in the absence of a plan of what came next, removed a weight from her shoulders as she rushed forward and embraced him tightly. Ben allowed a rare smile to rest on his face as he realized that she had accepted his reasoning.

 _"I'm pleasantly surprised,"_ a voice came from the edge of the clearing, causing the pair to quickly separate and turn to face the source of the voice. Hux stepped out from the edge of the treeline and out into the open, chuckling slightly to himself. "I suppose the Jedi are nothing if not punctual."

Yasha glanced around and realized that they must have wandered right into the designated meeting place - that perhaps, Ben had been guiding them in this direction all along in his determination to have this meeting. Hux nodded for them to follow him back towards the trees, and as they went deeper into the forest, the metallic glint in the fading light betrayed the presence of a sleek, space-to-land vessel, a stealth cruiser that they had obviously taken and hidden away here. Hux hand been here the whole time.

The craft, despite its streamlined exterior, seemed strangely spacious on the inside, with a large cockpit and control room, and an elevator pad to an upper floor, concealed by a closed door.

"That is where the Senator will be conferring with you," Hux said, following Yasha's upwards gaze. "He will be glad that you and His Highness have granted him an audience. He'd like to speak with each of you personally, if you'll allow it."

"Of course. I will speak with him first," Ben spoke up haughtily without allowing Yasha the opportunity to protest. She felt her heart sink strangely at the sight of Ben, for whom she had finally been able to admit her feelings, approaching the elevator pad and being carried up to speak with the mysterious Senator Snoke.

"Don't be afraid," Hux said with a deceptively calm, almost kind expression on his face, his hand grasping Yasha's shoulder more firmly than was needed. "No harm will come to anyone as valuable as either of you."

Ben, on the other hand, felt his heart racing in anticipation - at meeting the mysterious Snoke, who sent only emissaries, who even his own mother had not met. He was worthy. He was best. As the elevator pad rose to the second level and came to a stop, however, Ben was taken aback by the sight which awaited him.

On a steel table at the center of this much smaller room, an orb like machine crackled to life and projected the image of a robed man into the center of the room. Slowly, ominously, he gestured for Ben to come forward.

"Young Prince," he said in a tone that Ben could not decipher as reverence or derision. "I am honored at the opportunity for an audience with you."

"I know, I've heard," Ben retorted before he could help himself - the reaction garnered a strange, cough-like laugh from the man.

"I have very much anticipated our meeting," Snoke nodded with a bow. "Young Prince, I believe the Force has drawn us to meet. I have long hoped for this - to meet the grandson of the great Darth Vader."

The great Darth Vader, Ben mulled over in his mind. He had heard precious little about his grandfather - only that he had been killed, and had died in an act of redemption. He did not know what his father needed redeeming for.

"Tell me, Ben Solo," Snoke said, his voice strangely melodic in spite of its age and hoarseness as though he was weaving some sort of spell like a siren song. "Why do you wish to become a Jedi when your grandfather wanted so much to end them?"

The question made Ben take a step backward as though it had been a physical blow. He had no answers. He wanted to be a Jedi because he had begun, because he was the best, because it validated his strength and his ability.

"I can see inside you that the way of the Jedi holds you back," Snoke continued. "I can see that the girl from Lothal occupies your mind. That you care deeply for her. That you wish to keep her at your side."

"I... do."

"And the Jedi cannot love, can they?" Snoke asked. "Is that not what you have been taught?"

"It is."

"Darth Vader died a hero because of... love," Snoke continued. "Love, hate, passion, anger... all of these things are forbidden to the Jedi. The wholeness and the fullness of life, of all your potential, is being kept from you, Your Highness. Surely, you see it too."

Ben fell silent. Perhaps he did see it. Perhaps these were the answers he sought, at nights when he could not sleep and could no longer believe Master Skywalker's teachings in his heart. Perhaps this was why he was simply stagnating, that he could not grow.

They were holding him back. Yasha made him better - she made him better because he loved her. And as a Jedi, as long as Luke Skywalker was at the helm of the order, he could not fully have her.

Were these his own thoughts? Did they belong to someone else?

"When you return to the clearing, a token of my appreciation will be waiting for you," Snoke said into the silence, his eyes piercing and cold. "Consider it a reminder of my hope that we will meet again in the near future, Your Highness."

"Ben?"

The elevator pad opened again to reveal Yasha, who had just been sent up by Hux. Ben cast one glance backward at Snoke, staring back before striding towards Yasha and, driven by some strange urge, kissing her soundly on the mouth before striding past her, leaving her to her conference with Senator Snoke.

While Ben had been anxious to meet with the mysterious man, Yasha showed much less willingness, standing a good distance away and staring at the projection of the man with her arms stiff at her sides.

"You do not need to fear me, my lady," Snoke said, his holographic face curling into a strange near-grin as he regarded the young woman before him. She, like Ben, exuded a raw energy, an untapped power - but what came from her was different in character from Ben's. In Ben, there was anger. In Yasha, there was desperation and pride. "You are my honored guest."

"I have no reason to be an _honored guest_ ," Yasha said sternly. "I'm a farm girl from Lothal, the daughter of a baker and a miner. Before I became a Jedi Initiate, I slept on the floor and fed livestock every morning. I don't harbor any delusions of being more than that."

"You are _very much_ more than that, my lady," Snoke answered. "You are one of the most brilliant minds of the Jedi Academy. A loyal student. A faithful pupil. But... you are... doubtful -"

"I would appreciate if you stayed out of mind."

"And I honor your request," Snoke said, his lips curling into a smirk at her fiery temperament. "But I don't need to see into your mind to know that you care for Ben Solo. That you desire him."

Yasha tensed, her chest rising as she took in a deep breath. Her face contorted slightly in suspicion towards the man's intentions but knew that he was too important, too high in status to offend in such a manner.

"You believe that a Jedi is the only thing that you can be," Snoke said in a deceptively gentle tone. "And that is why you keep yourself from the one thing that would bring you happiness. Because a Jedi, your heart - your happiness - cannot matter. You are willing to make yourself a slave to the Force, rather than a master of it, because you are afraid."

"I'm not afraid," Yasha said firmly. "And I am no slave. I would like to leave now."

Snoke straightened up, having started to lean in closer to the young woman. He made a gesture like a bow and nodded - almost as though he admired her, while anyone else would have taken insult. "I apologize for having kept you, my lady," he began. "I very much hope for an audience with you again."

But Yasha could spare the man little more than a curt nod before walking briskly back toward the elevator pad, back to the main chamber of the stealth cruiser where Ben and Junior Officer Hux were waiting.

"Impeccable timing," Hux said with a grin - Yasha wa now more than ever beginning to feel extremely unsettled by the strange, saccharine demeanor granted to them by both Hux and Snoke. "I was just telling His Highness that the Senator has planned a very special show this evening, just for the both of you - as a show of our strength. We won't keep you any longer or you might miss it."

Yasha couldn't have left fast enough for her own taste, hurrying back into the clearing ahead of Ben with such haste that she tripped over what she assumed was a stone. She shuffled from her she had fallen and noticed that it was not a stone at all, but rather something that glinted in the newly minted moonlight. She reached over to pick it up, realizing that it was a helmet - all black and partially warped as though it had been burned.

"Yasha?" Ben said, crouching near where she had fallen in concern but quickly becoming distracted by what she was holding and reaching out to touch it himself. "What's -"

But before the question could leave his lips entirely, his mind was bombarded by an onslaught of images which he couldn't decipher. A horde of soldier in white armor. A space station like a moon. A man in all black, with a cape and mask... Darth Vader.

"This is mine," Ben said quickly as he opened his eyes, his expression desperate and furious as he pulled the helmet from Yasha's hands to her surprise. "Snoke told me that there would be something here for me. This is mine."

Yasha relinquished the strange helmet, getting to her feet and dusting herself off but not taking her gaze from Ben in the meantime. He got to his feet as well, holding the old, damaged helmet close to his abdomen as he locked eyes with the young woman in front of him.

"We need to go back, Ben," Yasha said shakily. "The Palace..."

But for a moment, Ben glanced back over his shoulder at the stealth cruiser's closed door, questioning whether he wanted to return at all. Snoke understood. Snoke saw potential in him, greater than in others. But Yasha's gaze pleaded with him to return, and for the moment he could not refuse it.

"Let's go," he said, reaching out for one of her hands and leading her back to the palace.

The journey back through the woods was a wordless one, and the pair made great haste back to the palace grounds, hurrying up the stairs and to the great wooden doors. Ben finally let go of Yasha's hand to open the door, only to find when he placed his hand on the handle that it opened without him applying any push - it swung open to reveal Princess Leia, staring sternly between her son and Yasha.

"Where have you been?" she asked, cocking her head to one side while Ben shuffled and kept the helmet hidden behind his back. "Ben? Yasha?"

"Your Highness, I'm sorry," Yasha spoke up first, before Ben could have the opportunity to say or do something rash. "I... I wanted to see more of the grounds before we had to leave, and Ben agreed to take me."

Leia, of course, was not blind. She saw that one of Ben's hands hid something behind him - but her gaze was drawn more to his other hand, which had darted over to take a hold of Yasha's. Whatever they had done, wherever they had been, at the very least Yasha had brought him back. Leia now locked eyes with the girl and opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, there was a loud sound like roaring thunder. The sky was suddenly illuminated, and the place in the sky which had once been occupied by one of Endor's gas moons was now taken by a ball of flame, and a wave of heat and sound that cascaded down to Endor.

Flanked by the two young teenagers, Leia hurried inside of the palace to regard the event from inside at the window, just in time to see flame and debris beginning to rain down on Endor from the destroyed moon.

This was the show of strength that Hux had spoken of, Ben and Yasha both realized as they locked eyes with one another. But while Yasha appeared horrified by the destruction of an entire moon, Ben looked impressed, almost enraptured. Leia saw the expression on her son's face and felt her heart sink.

Immediately, the other delegates present and staying in guest quarters in the palace were flooding into the great hall in various states of drowsiness and panic. Yasha flinched in surprise upon seeing Hux among them. Despite Leia's obvious concern for the pair before her, duty now called more loudly. Representative of the entire Republic looked to her now, and she began to move towards the platform to address them.

Ben regarded her with a small amount of bitterness until Yasha rested a hand on the crook of his arm, willing him to look at her. He complied briefly, but again found his gaze drawn to the window as the flaming debris continued to illuminate the night sky.

This was power, he realized, and he desired it.

He needed it.

* * *

 _A/N_

 _I have to admit... writing Snoke and Hux is extra hard. I hope my readers got what they wanted from this first interaction, especially **N Dot A Dot (guest)** , who specifically mentioned their hope to see the interaction. With all of this being said, the next chapter will go to present-day action, and taking this quick break has helped me get a better grasp on how I want to portray everything._

 _Also, I have been considering also alternating posting another story that I have some chapters written for, which is a Reylo Biker!AU, because I have really been wanting to get my muse for my Sons of Anarchy muses awake again. On the fence, because I already have very little time on my hands, but that might be on the horizon in the near future._

 _But for now, I am focused on developing this story, and as always, I'm glad for all the support I get from all of you, even in spite of the speedbumps along the way and the sometimes delayed updates. Until next time, cheers!_

 ** _Next Time: The Resistance arrives to collect the Marelignium from Dantooine, but returns with more than they asked for._**


	15. Retrieval

_**On Dantooine, Present Day**_

* * *

"Alright, boys," Poe said, slinging a large rucksack full of explosives over his shoulder as he disembarked from the cruiser onto Dantooine, gesturing for the others to follow along. In front of him, he pushed a large, covered metal cart - they'd been informed that if there was marelignium at all in the mountain, it would only be a matter of a few shards. But he was Commander Poe Dameron, and he was always open to the possibility of things going implausibly well. If there was a possibility at all of coming back with a cartload of what they were looking for, he would be prepared for that possibility.

"This is the mountain range from the map, and we're gonna blow it sky high until we find those rocks! I'll start from that cave up there and work my way westward. Finn," he barked, gesturing for the other man to come up near him. "You start at the far side, work eastward. Meet in the center here. One of us is gonna come across somethin' eventually."

"Got it - drop bombs, go East," he chuckled, appreciative of the sense of brotherhood that he had forged so quickly with the others. Poe, however, tugged him aside by the crook of his arm before they split to climb up the side of the mountain, after they had gotten away from the few others who had come along on the mission.

"You okay, Finnie?" Poe asked, cocking his head to one side. "I mean, I know you're okay. But you seem distracted, and a teammate that's distracted is a teammate in trouble. I don't like seein' friends in trouble. Are you -"

"I'm fine," he confirmed, his tone somewhat irate. He grudgingly stopped in his tracks when he realized that Poe wouldn't continue walking until the issue was cleared up. "Rey just - she just -"

"Ah. Women," Poe chuckled, raising his eyebrows. "Say no more."

But Finn realized, as Poe jogged off in the other direction, that he had a great deal he wanted to say - that he felt awful for being part of the team while Rey got left behind, that he knew how hard that was for her, that he wanted to be able to do something. But those were things for another time, even if Poe was concerned. There was a mission to complete.

In some ways, Finn realized, life in the Resistance was still no different from life as a Stormtrooper. He sighed a little to himself and ran off in the direction he had been assigned.

Poe, by that point, was already walking up the steep side of the mountain, holding tightly to the stones that jutted out to ensure that he kept his footing over the nearly vertical slope. As he climbed, he hammered spikes into the side of the mountain, all linked to cables attached to the mining cart at the foot of the slope. He'd be able to pull it up if he was lucky.

These things were sometimes perhaps a little more hassle than they were worth, but the adventure was what kept him going through all of this. If he couldn't get a little bit of enjoyment from this, after all, he'd never have lasted this long.

Finally reaching the mouth of the cave, Poe heaved and yanked at the cable as it dragged up the steep incline - he only rested when it was finally up on the ledge with him. He took a seat, leaning against the cool rock and swiping the sweat from his brow. But resting was not something he enjoyed doing for too long - he liked action. He liked movement and progress. So, within minutes, he had returned to his feet and slung the cable over his shoulder and pulling it along behind him with rusty creaks and groans of the wheels.

It seemed a little bit of a waste of time, flying to a distant planet and scaling small mountains just for a few hunks of rock. There were times that Poe admitted to all of this Force mumbo jumbo going over his head, because there was so little that one could control. It was too big, too broad. Poe Dameron enjoyed the details and the minutiae far too much to care for the Force. Yet, here they were.

He had eventually made it far enough down the tunnel without even being conscious of his motions that the light from the mouth of the tunnel faded away - instead, he realized that his steps were illuminated by a faint honey-colored glow from the walls around him. Squinting slightly, he realized that from underneath the rock, little glimmers of glowing stones peered through like little constellations. There was Marelignium in the walls, and plenty of it - there were at least five brightly glowing shards in the walls.

Poe quickly laid down an explosive at the foot of the cave wall, right in front of the shards, and hurried back down a safe distance just in time, before the small explosive detonated with a loud boom whose force sent mild shockwaves down the tunnel, though not enough to create extensive damage. Poe coughed against the large cloud of dust that greeted him and crouched to cover his face until it settled and he could move forward without the debris choking the air from his lungs.

Returning the spot he had found, he realized that is was far darker than before, but the faint glow of the rocks was still visible under the rocks and dust. Digging into the debris at his feet, he scooped the first shard of Marelignium into his hand and held it up to get a better look at it.

Perfect, he though with a smirk. He'd found what they needed - he could have gone on this mission himself, and everything would have gone just as swimmingly he noted, tossing the stone over his shoulder so that it landed with a clang in the mining cart behind him. Then, he dusted off a second. A third. He hoisted up a hunk of what looked like limestone and dropped it into the cart as well for good measure. Resources, after all, were difficult to come by, and since they'd brought such a large ship, it would have been a waste of capacity not to come home with more spoils.

He froze, however, at the sound of shuffling, coming from the opening of the mine. He squinted at the small spot of light at its mouth and realized that a figure was coming closer. He reached for the blaster that was holstered at his hip and pointed it in the direction of the approaching figure.

"That you, Finn?" he called out. No response. "Tell me if it's you or I'm firing a warning shot."

No answer.

"You have until I count three," Poe barked authoritatively. "One. Two. Three -"

His finger squeezed the trigger of his blaster and fired a shot - he felt his heart leap against his ribcage when the burst of red light was stopped in midair. He felt, against his own will, that his body was tensing, that his grip on his weapon loosened until it fell to the ground entirely. The figure, who Poe could now see was masked and clad all in black, moved closer and closer, his silhouette illuminated by the few shards of Marelignium in the mining cart.

Kylo Ren, after all, was not one to accept being bested quite so easily, and now that his wounds were healed, he had found his strength returning. After he had passed the beam of light from Poe's blaster, he allowed it to continue down its trajectory with a loud zing.

Poe was frozen in place, watching the figure approaching and preparing himself for whatever onslaight Kylo Ren had planned. He could not move. He could not speak. Kylo Ren moved forward until he could stand right at the side of the mining cart, staring down at the precious stones inside. He could have had it right then and there and fulfilled his mission - but that was not his way. He could not settle for a small victory when something greater was possible. He gripped the edge of the cart and tilted his head slightly to one side as he regarded Poe. Then, he raised his hand and waved it in front of the pilot's face.

"You will bring me to your ship undetected," Kylo said in the signature, modulated tone. "And then, you will bring me to the Resistance Base."

"I will bring you..." Poe said helplessly, his eyes vaguely glazed over, "...to the Resistance Base..."

* * *

 _A/N_

 _I know, another short chapter! I have been swamped with work and school, but it's a good kind of swamped. Thank you to all of you who have been messaging, reviewing, following, and supporting in any way. You all are awesome!_

 _As I mentioned in my updates for my other stories (if you follow those), I am working on trying to update a few other works in progress, to help keep my juices flowing. So, updates might be slow, but rest assured that I haven't forgotten any of you guys! I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day! Until next update, cheers!_

 ** _Next Time: Kylo Ren arrives at the Resistance Base, and another departs..._**


End file.
